At least 82 Palestinians were killed, dozens more injured on Wednesday in intensive Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, civil defense in Gaza said, reported Xinhua.
An Israeli airstrike targeted a restaurant and a densely populated market nearby in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, killing at least 39 people and wounding 86 others, according to Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for civil defense in Gaza.
"I heard the whistle first, then the explosion… I saw bodies lying around, including two children who were selling coffee and another who was selling corn," said Ibrahim Saad, 27, a survivor being treated at Al-Shifa Hospital.
Another eyewitness, Abu Saleh Abdo, said the strike came without warning.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli strike on Al-Karama School in the Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, killed 19 people, many of them displaced civilians seeking shelter. The school was reportedly hit twice, according to eyewitnesses, eyewitnesses said.
Additional Israeli airstrikes claimed at least 24 more lives in various parts of the enclave, Basal added.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Wednesday that the Israeli army committed "four massacres" on civilian facilities within 24 hours, claiming that the attacks aim to "cause the greatest possible number of civilian casualties."
The Israeli army has not commented on these reported attacks yet.
Meanwhile, fighting continued between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces pushing forward on multiple fronts in the coastal enclave.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in separate statements that its fighters had targeted Israeli forces in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, causing casualties among the soldiers, though no specific numbers were provided.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army, but the Israeli public radio Kan reported that four soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, in a bomb explosion.
The escalation of Israeli attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip comes amid the continued closure of crossings and the prevention of aid from entering, exacerbating the humanitarian situation to unprecedented levels.
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
