GAZA, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in two Israeli airstrikes in the southern and central Gaza Strip, and Israeli shelling continued in northern Gaza, sources said.
Israeli aircraft targeted a tent housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua.
In a press statement, the Civil Defense in Gaza reported that its workers, along with medical teams, recovered the bodies of seven victims, including children, and several injuries, all of whom were transferred to hospitals.
Meanwhile, al-Awda Hospital in al-Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, said in a brief statement that eight people were killed and 15 others injured to varying degrees in an Israeli strike on the Khaled bin Al-Walid school, which shelters displaced people in the camp.
The airstrike caused fires and extensive destruction in the targeted area of the school, which belongs to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.
The Israeli army and the UN agency have not commented on the attack on the school.
Also on Wednesday, eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip has been under artillery shelling since morning, causing significant damage, and this came alongside days of house demolitions in the area.
Witnesses reported thick smoke rising from western Beit Lahia as residential buildings were burned, adding that Israeli vehicles had withdrawn from the area and other parts of the town.
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 the Gaza Strip has risen to 43,985, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday. ■
