Israeli strikes kill 21 in Gaza

At least 21 Palestinians were killed on Monday in a series of intense Israeli attacks across various areas of the Gaza Strip, said Palestinian sources, reported Xinhua.

Seven Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an airstrike targeting an apartment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a Palestinian medical source and paramedics told Xinhua.

In addition, six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment on Yarmouk Street in Gaza City, local sources and eyewitnesses confirmed.

Rescue and civil defense teams recovered the bodies of the victims and several injured people from the apartment and are still searching for survivors, the sources told Xinhua.

The civil defense teams also recovered the bodies of three victims and several injured people from another apartment on the same street, according to the sources and witnesses.

Furthermore, the Gaza Civil Defense reported that its teams recovered the bodies of five people, including a child, along with several injured people following an Israeli attack on a house on Yafa Street in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

Separately, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a Palestinian was killed and three others injured on Monday evening by gunfire from Israeli settlers near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Israel has been on a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and approximately 250 taken hostages.

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 40,435, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Monday.