GAZA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday targeting separate refugee camps in central and northern Gaza, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Shana'a family with several missiles without prior warning in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 11 Palestinians, according to Palestinian security sources and medics at the Al-Aqsa Hospital, which received the dead bodies.

Eyewitnesses said searches for missing persons under the rubble are still ongoing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday that in central Gaza, its troops directed Israeli Air Force strikes and dismantled militant structures used by Hamas to execute sniper fire and plant explosives.

Meanwhile, an Israeli warplane attacked the Asmaa School housing displaced people in the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing seven Palestinians and wounding dozens of others, all of whom were taken to hospital, Palestinian security and medical sources told Xinhua.

The Israeli army has not commented on the incident yet.

Also on Saturday, the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said in a press statement that the Israeli army cut off communications and the Internet in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza and continues "its violations against the besieged families."

In light of the army's continued targeting of everything, the number of dead victims will rise, especially in light of the presence of dead under the rubble, in the besieged homes, and on the streets, it said.

Residents in Jabalia reported that the Israeli army blew up residential buildings over their heads. At the same time, medical sources at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza told Xinhua that the continuous Israeli ground operation for the second week in a row has made it difficult to transfer the victims, most of whom women and children, to the hospital.

The IDF said in a statement on Saturday that it killed several militants in close-quarters encounters and Israeli Air Force strikes in the Jabalia area.

In addition, Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia, north of Jabalia, told Xinhua in a phone call that "the Israeli army is firing heavily inside the hospital and cutting off the electricity. The crews were unable to operate the generator, knowing that there are injuries that need urgent treatment."

"The tanks are surrounding the hospital and we are sending out a distress call for the medical staff and patients," Sultan said.

Munir al-Barash, director general of the health authorities in Gaza, told Xinhua that "the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza were subjected to heavy artillery shelling, causing panic among patients and medical staff."

Noting that the hospital houses more than 40 patients and the wounded, in addition to medical staff, Al-Barash said, "A group of displaced people were targeted in front of the hospital gate, resulting in civilian casualties."

The Israeli army has yet to comment on the siege of the hospital.

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 42,519, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday. Enditem

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