By Abdelrahman Fathy Ramadan Mohamed, Gulsen Topcu and Ramzi Mahmoud

GAZA, Palestine (AA): Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip killed eight more Palestinians early Saturday, taking the death toll to 144, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Meanwhile 11 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) said the Israeli Air Force fired several missiles at a three-story home, owned by the Abu Hatab family, killing eight members of the family and wounding twenty others. One sole survivor was a 2-month-old baby, said Health authorities in Gaza who stated that a “massacre” was not adequate to describe what happened.

Six children and two women of one family were killed by Israeli forces in the latest attack against a residential house. 

Also at dawn, the army fired five missiles at Kuleybu Mosque in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, completely leveling it, and causing damage to many surrounding homes and buildings, Gaza’s Ministry of Foundations and Religious Affairs said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Hamas’ military wing, the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, announced that Ashdod, Beersheba, was hit by rockets in response to an attack on a house in the Al-Shati refugee camp and to avenge Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank.

Three Palestinians, including two siblings, were killed in late-night attacks by Israeli war jets on the Tel Kuleybu area in northern Gaza.

Total fatalities in Gaza includes 37 children and 22 women, while the number injured exceeds 950 since Monday, said a statement from the ministry.

Israeli forces carried out nearly 30 airstrikes between Friday evening and Saturday morning targeting northern Gaza.

Before that attack, Israel killed seven civilians, including five children and two women.

Witnesses said the bodies were taken to Shifa hospital after the bombing of a house belonging to the Abu Hatab family in the Al-Shati refugee camp.

A search for missing people under the rubble is underway, they said.

Israeli warplanes resumed airstrikes Friday on the blockaded Gaza Strip, causing heavy damage to residential buildings across the enclave.

The United Nations has reported that at least 10.000 Palestinians have left their homes to seek shelters in mosques and schools in the Gaza Strip, amidst extremely limited supplies of food, water, and sanitary products.

Meanwhile, 11 Palestinians were killed Friday as Israeli forces clashed with demonstrators to disperse rallies in parts of the West Bank.

Also, Lebanese authorities announced that a Lebanese youth was killed when Israeli artillery fire targeted protesters along the Israeli security fence in the south of the country.

Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as Israeli forces and settlers assaulted Palestinians.

Tensions moved from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Seven Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets in Israel.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Merve Berker

[Photo: A two-month old baby injured in Israeli attack carried out to home of Palestinian Abu Khatab Familiy living in Al-Shati Camp in Gaza Strip, being brought to Shifa Hospital on May 15, 2021, in Gaza City, Gaza. Photographer: Ashraf Amra/AA]