4 Palestinians killed as Israeli jets hit dwelling in Rafah

At least four people were killed on Thursday when Israeli jets struck a residential building in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, according to a Palestinian medical source, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The number of fatalities brought to the Kuwaiti Hospital due to Israeli airstrike on the Lafi family’s house in the Jnaina neighbourhood has risen to four Palestinians,” the source told Anadolu.

The source added that the strikes also injured several Palestinians, noting that some of those wounded were in “serious” condition.

It added that the bodies were in “shreds”.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a 7 October attack by Hamas which killed about 1,200 people. More than 34,900 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,500 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: As Rafah offensive looms, Palestinians fear dispossession again