Gaza, Feb 18 (IANS): At least 40 Palestinians were killed and many others injured in Israeli airstrikes that targetted residential homes in the central Gaza Strip, the media reported.

Palestinian medical sources told Xinhua news agency on Saturday that Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent raids on several homes in the areas of Nuseirat, Al-Zawaida, and Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, killing dozens of people and wounding many others.

The sources added that civil defence crews were able to recover 40 bodies, while dozens remained under the rubble, noting that the dead and wounded were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Ministry of Health, run by Hamas in Gaza, announced that the number of Palestinian deaths had risen to 28,858 since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

Israel is launching a large-scale military war on the Gaza Strip for the fifth month in a row after Hamas carried out a sudden and unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the Strip, killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostages.