Over 40 Palestinians killed on 13th day of Israeli war on Gaza

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed on the 13th day of the bloody Israeli bombing campaign on the fully besieged Gaza Strip.

Citing witnesses and medical sources, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that on Thursday over 30 people were also killed in Israeli aerial assaults on the city of Rafah, south of Gaza.

Nine more Palestinians, including seven children, lost their lives in similar Israeli strikes on a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, the report added.

It also said Israeli air raids killed a Palestinian baby in the Nuseirat refugee camp and a child west of Khan Yunis.

The fatalities brought the number of Palestinians killed so far in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza to at least 3,859. Some 13,500 Palestinians have also been injured.

Israel launched the war on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance group Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity.

It has also blocked water, food and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal sliver into a humanitarian crisis.

The regime has further ordered 1.1 million people in the north of Gaza to evacuate and move south of the coastal sliver.

However, it has continued to rain down bombs on the south, killing large numbers of Palestinians.

Medical staff at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said on Thursday they had received at least 12 dead and 40 wounded.

The United Nations says about half of the Palestinians in Gaza have been made homeless, still trapped inside the besieged enclave.

The world body’s human rights office says Israel’s complete siege of Gaza, combined with the evacuation order, could amount to a forcible transfer of civilians, breaching international law.