At least 15 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombings on Gaza City: sources

GAZA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes on a barbershop and a school housing displaced people in Gaza City, Palestinian sources said.

An Israeli aircraft targeted a barbershop in central Gaza City, local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua.

A press statement issued by the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority in Gaza said the airstrike killed five people and wounded dozens of others.

Israeli aircraft also targeted the Abu Asi school, which houses displaced families in the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, with two missiles, according to local sources and witnesses.

The Civil Defense said in a separate statement that its workers recovered 10 bodies, including those of women and children, and found 20 others injured, noting that the school had been targeted multiple times.

Medics told Xinhua that the number of fatalities at the school is expected to rise in the coming hours as search efforts continue for missing people beneath the rubble.

There was no Israeli comment on the two raids.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday that in the Gaza Strip, IDF troops have continued their operational activity in the areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, both in the northern Gaza Strip.

Over the past day, the air force struck over 160 targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it added.

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 the ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has reached 43,799, while the number of injuries has climbed to 103,601, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday.