5 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing across Gaza: sources

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- At least five Palestinians, including a doctor and municipality employees, were killed in an Israeli bombing across the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said Wednesday.

Mohammed Ghanem, a doctor at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, was killed by an Israeli drone attack, according to the sources.

The Gaza Municipality said in a press statement that two of its workers operating water wells were targeted and killed by the Israeli army when they were performing duties east of the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City.

Condemning the Israeli attack and urging an immediate investigation by the international community into the incident, the statement said that the targeted location is one of the wells coordinated with the Israeli side and supplied with fuel periodically and that the municipality might be unable to provide basic services as a result of the attack.

In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a brief statement that two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli targeting of a vehicle south of Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza.

According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle belongs to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the dead and injured were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Israeli aircraft and artillery also launched a series of raids targeting residential homes in northern, central, and southern Gaza, killing and wounding a number of Palestinians, Palestinian sources said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday in a statement that it has stepped up attacks in the Jabalia area, northern Gaza, killing numerous militants and locating weapons.

Israeli security forces have also arrested over 150 militants in Jabalia and taken them to Israel while allowing civilians "to evacuate safely through organized routes for their protection," the IDF said.

During operations in central Gaza, Israeli troops identified and targeted several armed militants, directing an IDF aircraft to kill them, the IDF said, adding that following the strike, secondary explosions indicated the presence of significant quantities of weapons.

Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said on social media platform X that the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza had been postponed due to the escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 42,792, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday. ■