GAZA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 49 Palestinians were killed on Monday in Israeli airstrikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip, according to the Civil Defense agency in the coastal enclave.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Xinhua that Israeli forces had intensified air and artillery attacks on multiple locations, hitting homes, tents, schools sheltering displaced people, and public gatherings.
Five people were killed in an airstrike on a crowd in al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, and another four died in a similar strike in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave, Basal said.
He added that 15 others, including a woman, were killed when Israeli drones struck a group of people near an aid distribution point in Gaza City's southern Zeitoun district.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, rescue teams recovered the bodies of 10 people killed in Israeli air and artillery bombardment, according to the Civil Defense.
Basal also said at least 15 people were killed while waiting for food near two U.S.-backed aid distribution centers in central and southern Gaza.
Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said Israeli artillery had been shelling the eastern, northern, and southern outskirts of Gaza City since early morning. They reported that Israeli ground forces advanced into the Zeitoun and Tuffah neighborhoods under heavy gunfire, forcing residents to flee.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attacks.
Israel resumed major military operations in Gaza on March 18. Gaza's health authorities said on Sunday that at least 6,175 Palestinians have been killed and 21,378 others wounded since then, bringing the overall death toll since the war began in October 2023 to 56,500, with 133,419 others injured. ■