Israeli army kills 43 Palestinians across Gaza: civil defense

Gaza, July 6 (IANS) At least 43 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Civil Defense in Gaza said.

Israeli warplanes attacked two homes in the al-Nasr and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods in Gaza City, according to eyewitnesses.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Xinhua that 25 people, including children and women, were killed, and several others were wounded in the two airstrikes.

Basal added that four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli shelling of a residential house in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, while three others were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent sheltering displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, reported Xinhua news agency.

Ten people were also killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on tents housing displaced Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, according to Basal.

Meanwhile, Basal said that a Palestinian was killed and some others were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the Al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

In addition to the airstrikes and gunfire, Israeli artillery shelled the eastern and southern outskirts of Gaza City, Jabalia, and Khan Younis, amid clashes with armed Palestinian factions, according to local sources.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that IDF troops continued their operations both above and below ground against the "terrorist organizations" in the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, the attacks targeted command and control structures, storage facilities, tunnel shafts, weapons, launchers, and an unspecified number of militants in Khan Younis, Rafah, Gaza City and Jabalia.

Since Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, at least 6,860 Palestinians have been killed and 24,220 others injured, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023 to 57,418, with a total of 136,261 people injured, according to data released on Sunday by health authorities in Gaza.

--IANS

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