53 killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza

At least 53 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the northern and southern Gaza Strip from Thursday night through Friday, reported Xinhua, quoting Palestinian sources.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli drone targeted on Friday a gathering of Palestinians in the Al-Mashtal area, north of the Al-Shati camp, local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua.

Paramedics reported that medical teams and the Civil Defense service recovered the bodies of 11 people and found several injuries that were later transported to the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

Additionally, two Palestinians were killed and five others wounded in an Israeli strike on the port west of Gaza City, and another two Palestinians, including a girl, were killed in a third Israeli airstrike that targeted them in Senaa Street in the west of the city, said a statement from the city's Civil Defense service.

Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, at least 38 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured, mostly children and women, in Israeli attacks on houses in the southeast of Khan Younis from Thursday night to Friday morning, Gaza-based health authorities said in a press statement.

Local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft and artillery heavily bombed the neighborhoods of Al-Manara, Ma'en, Sheikh Nasser, and the outskirts of Qizan Al-Najjar, south and east of Khan Younis, forcing dozens of families to flee toward the western part of the city.

They said the Israeli attacks targeted several residential homes and a mosque in those areas, accompanied by a limited ground incursion.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday that it killed in southern Gaza a number of militants from the air and ground and dismantled numerous militant infrastructure sites over the past day.

On Friday, Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had a phone conversation with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

During the phone talks, they discussed recent developments in Palestinian affairs, especially the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as the necessity of halting the ongoing Israeli "aggression" against the Palestinian people, the report said.

According to the report, the two sides agreed to continue bilateral, Arab, and international coordination to stop the war.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas 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 about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 42,847, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Thursday.