On Thursday, the Israeli army shelled the cities of Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah as part of its war campaign against the Strip, where dozens of dead and wounded were reported in the last hours.
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Fighter jets struck the Gaza neighborhoods of Al-Rimal, Al-Sabra, Tal Al-Hawa and Al-Zaytoun at dawn, causing numerous civilian casualties, the official Wafa news agency reported.
Several squares and public places in the western part of the town were also targeted in the raids.
According to official data, 14 people were killed, including five minors, and dozens were wounded in the neighborhoods of Tal Al-Sultan and Al-Saudi following the shelling of Rafah.
Two other civilians were killed and at least 10 injured in the shelling of a house in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the center of the coastal enclave.
Among them are Palestinian television journalist Nafez Abdel-Gawad and his only son.
Wafa detailed that an Israeli sniper killed two people in the vicinity of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which has been under siege for two weeks, despite international denunciations and condemnations.
The source indicated that Israeli artillery also fired dozens of rockets at the eastern areas of that city, the epicenter of an army ground offensive.
In the last few hours, international concern grew after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Armed Forces to begin their ground advances against Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians, out of the total of 2.3 million living in the Strip, are sheltering.