By Abdul Adil

(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, The Muslim News):

GAZA

Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 more Palestinians, bringing the death toll since October 2023 to 50,669, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

A ministry statement said another 162 wounded were transferred to hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the number of injured to 115,225.

Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them, the statement added.

Meanwhile on Friday, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 86 Palestinians and injured 287 others.

Israel resumed its attacks in Gaza on March 18, shattering a two-month truce.

At least 22 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in multiple Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, medical sources said, as the Israeli army continued demolishing residential buildings in western Rafah.

In the latest airstrikes, six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack targeting a group of people in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Anadolu.

Another six people were killed and several others injured in a strike targeting a group of Palestinians on Al-Na’yma Street in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the enclave, according to a medical source.

Additionally, two people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a group of Palestinians near the entrance of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a gathering of civilians in the al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

Another Palestinian was killed and several others injured in a separate strike that targeted a house in the Mirage area, northeast of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.

Three Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a community kitchen distributing food in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

In a separate attack, a Palestinian was killed and his wife and child were injured after their apartment was bombed in central Khan Younis.

In Gaza City, a Palestinian woman was killed in an Israeli strike on the Zeitoun neighborhood, located in the southeast of the city.

Witnesses said Israel resumed heavy shelling on the al-Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza at dawn, firing extensively into the area.

In Rafah, the Israeli army also continued demolishing residential buildings in the western part of the city, particularly in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, where it has been carrying out a military offensive since March 23.

The area has been under siege as the army attempts to expand its control and establish what it calls a “buffer security zone.”

Israel orders more forced expulsions from southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City as the UN estimates some 280,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18.

Local sources reported that an Israeli drone fired a missile at a charitable food pantry in the Qatawa refugee camp, west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, killing five people.

Israeli artillery also shelled the center of Rafah city and the Arabiyya area and its surroundings, north of the city.

Medical sources announced the killing of Bahaa El-Din Raed Muharab, a young man, from wounds he sustained in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Al-Nasr, northeast of Rafah.

WEST BANK

A group of illegal Israeli settlers on Friday attacked Palestinian herders in the southern West Bank, continuing their spree of violent attacks against innocent people.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the settlers, who were under the protection of the Israeli forces, assaulted the Palestinian herders near the Al-Maniya village, east of Bethlehem city, and tried to steal their sheep.

As a confrontation erupted between the assailant settlers and Palestinians, Israeli forces intervened in favor of the settlers and fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinians, resulting in several asphyxiation cases, witnesses said.

In February, the Israeli army carried out 1,475 attacks, while settlers carried out 230 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to a report by the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have intensified attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, killing more than 944 Palestinians, injuring around 7,000, and arresting over 15,800, according to official Palestinian figures.

The Israeli army has also launched a deadly offensive in the northern West Bank since January, killing more than 70 Palestinians and displacing thousands.

The International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal in July. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

YEMEN

Houthi [Ansar Allah] group in Yemen claimed on Friday to have thwarted two planned aerial American attacks on Yemen by targeting the US warships in the Red Sea, as Washington escalated its airstrikes on the poverty-stricken country.

Military spokesman Yahya Saree said Houthi forces have “targeted the hostile US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its affiliated warships in the Red Sea, using several cruise missiles and drones.

“We thwarted two aerial attacks that the enemy was preparing to launch against our country in a confrontation that was the second within the past 24 hours and lasted for several hours.”

He stressed that the group “will not abandon its moral, religious, and humanitarian duties toward the oppressed Palestinian people, no matter the consequences.”

There was no immediate US comment on the Houthi statement.

According to the Houthi-run Health Ministry, at least 61 civilians have been killed and 139 others injured in US airstrikes across Yemen since March 15.

The Houthi military spokesperson confirmed a single drone that Israel said was intercepted a few hours ago after coming “from the east” was launched by the Yemeni group.

The Houthis also shot down a Giant Shark F360 reconnaissance drone, Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

The unmanned vehicle was “carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Saada governorate” when it was brought down “using a locally made surface-to-air missile”, said Saree.

Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on Friday announced that his group’s operations against American naval vessels will “continue with high effectiveness.”

In a televised speech, Al-Houthi said the American aircraft carrier USS Truman “is in a constant state of pursuit, fleeing to the far north of the Red Sea.”

“We will continue confronting the Americans, who are complicit with the Israeli enemy, supporting, protecting, and joining them in their aggression against Palestine and the peoples of our nation.”

He pointed out that the “American airstrikes and attacks (in Yemen) sometimes exceed 90 raids per day,” accusing Washington of “committing crimes and waging aggression against our country without any justification.”

“Our position is directed against the Israeli enemy and the Americans, who have openly declared war on our country,” Al-Houthi said, stressing that his group’s fight “is for Palestine to prevent the displacement of its people and pressure for an end to their genocide.”

[Photo: Palestinians queue to receive the food distributed on April 5, Palestinian Children’s Day, in Gaza City, Gaza. The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is deepening as Israel continues to attack the Strip in violation of the ceasefire and the borders remain closed. Photojournalist: Ashraf Amra/AA]