Israeli airstrike kills 13 Palestinians on gathering in Gaza City

GAZA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a gathering of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, local eyewitnesses and medical sources said on Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that a drone attacked a gathering of Palestinians trying to access the internet in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.

Medical sources told Xinhua that at least 13 Palestinians died at the scene, and several others sustained varying degrees of injuries had been transported to the hospital.

The Israeli media reported that a nephew of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in the airstrike.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli army demolished a residential square in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, which has been the site of a military operation for almost a week.

The sources added that the Israeli military intensified aerial and artillery bombardment on the northern outskirts of the camp, where clashes broke out with Palestinian factions.

On April 11, the Israeli army announced the start of a surprise military operation in the middle Gaza Strip as a part of the ongoing war against Hamas for over six months.

Israel has been launching 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 more than 200 were taken hostage.