At least 88 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza
DAMASCUS
At least 88 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on residential areas in the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday, with ordinary citizens and hospital staff assisting in transporting the injured and dead to hospitals after Israeli forces destroyed Palestinian Civil Defense's emergency assistance infrastructure.
At least 66 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a residential square near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, a medical source told Anadolu, providing preliminary estimates.
People were carrying the dead and injured to the hospital because there were no Palestinian Civil Defense rescue teams to help them after Israeli forces destroyed their infrastructure, the source said.
He added that medical teams from Kamal Adwan Hospital helped to rescue people from beneath the rubble.
"Dozens of homes in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital were completely destroyed and dozens others severely damaged by the Israeli devastating airstrike," a source seen the destructions told Anadolu.
In an earlier attack, an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of northern Gaza City killed at least 22 more Palestinians.
"The death toll rose to 22 Palestinians, including 10 children and five women, by an Israeli airstrike on a home for the Al-Arouqi family in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood," a medical source told Anadolu.
An eyewitness also told Anadolu that a heavy Israeli airstrike completely destroyed a six-story building for the Al-Arouqi family, killing dozens and leaving others missing under the rubble.
Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing nearly 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.
The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with figures and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
Syria says 36 killed on Palmyra
The Syrian defense ministry said 36 people were killed and more than 50 wounded Wednesday in Israeli air strikes on the city of Palmyra, renowned for its ancient ruins.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the Israeli strikes had killed as many as 61 people.
"The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of the Al-Tanf area, targeting a number of buildings in the city of Palmyra," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The attack "killed 36 people and wounded more than 50", and caused "significant material damage," it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights however gave a higher toll, which it expected to "rise due to the presence of seriously injured people".
"The total number of dead reached 61 people," it said.
Among them, 33 were Syrians affiliated with Iranian militias, 22 were non-Syrians, four from Hezbollah and two unknown, according to the monitor.
The strikes targeting Palmyra — a modern city adjacent to Greco-Roman ruins — are the deadliest in Syria since all-out war erupted between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel on September 23.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned "in the strongest terms the brutal Israeli aggression against the city of Palmyra, which reflects the continuing crimes of Zionism against the countries of the region and their peoples".
Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was taken over and pillaged by Islamic State jihadists at the height of the Syrian civil war.
The director general of Antiquities and Museums in Syria, Nazir Awad, told AFP the city's temples "did not suffer any direct damage" during the latest strikes.
"We need to conduct a survey on the ground to confirm these observations," he added.
