At least 21 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Friday, including five people in al-Mawasi, an area Israel has previously designated as a “humanitarian zone,” according to hospital officials and local sources.
Medical sources in Gaza told Al Jazeera that the five people were killed in a drone strike that targeted tents sheltering displaced civilians in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Several others, including children, were reportedly injured.
Despite its designation as a “safe zone,” al-Mawasi has been repeatedly hit during the ongoing Israeli military campaign.
Elsewhere in Gaza, four people were killed and three injured in an airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced families in the Sudaniya area, northwest of Gaza City. Another four people were killed in an attack on a home in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the city’s west, while two others died in a strike on tents east of the port area in Khan Younis.
Additional casualties were reported in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where airstrikes targeted residential homes. The exact number of victims was not immediately available.
The latest attacks come amid a renewed push by the Israeli military to retake parts of Gaza City. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the operation marks “a new and dangerous phase” in the conflict, now in its tenth month.
Meanwhile, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the annexation of Gaza if Hamas refuses to disarm — the latest in a series of controversial statements by Israeli officials advocating for full control over the enclave.
The Israeli military also confirmed it killed two Lebanese soldiers in the Ras an-Naqoura area in southern Lebanon, blaming a drone malfunction during operations against what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.
Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has killed at least 62,966 Palestinians and injured more than 159,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The war began after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 taken captive, Israeli officials say.
