Gaza residents endured yet another night of relentless Israeli bombing amid uncertainty on whether Rafah crossing will open to allow much-needed supplies into the enclave, as the Israeli army stated that it struck more than 100 targets in overnight air raids across the 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," said the agency.
"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.
The report also noted that Israeli air raids killed a Palestinian baby in the Nuseirat refugee camp and a child west of Khan Yunis.
The Palestinian health ministry has just stated that a total of 13 people, including five children, were killed after Israeli forces raided and carried out an air strike on Nur Shams refugee camp that began on Thursday.
The fatalities brought the number of Palestinians killed so far in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza to at least 3,859, with some 13,500 Palestinians also 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. The Israeli blockade of water, food, and electricity has plunged the coastal enclave 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 has reported that 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.