A Palestinian youth stands in a damaged room following an overnight Israeli raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Feb 21, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

GAZA/JENIN/DAMASCUS/BEIRUT - At least 17 Palestinians were killed and more than 34 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, local medical sources told Xinhua on Wednesday.

The sources added that rescue efforts are still ongoing, and the casualties include women and children.

The recovered victims were all transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah, the sources added.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that an Israeli warplane fired several missiles at the house sheltering several displaced families.

The massive blast brought down the building and caused severe damage to neighboring houses in the western part of the camp.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday said the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 29,313, with 69,333 others wounded

Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded during an Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said on Wednesday.

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The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its crew had transported two injured people, one with several gunshot wounds and the other with bullet fragments in his leg, and the body of a young Palestinian to the hospital.

Israel's special forces stormed the camp and raided a house in the Al-Samran neighborhood before they had armed clashes with Palestinian gunmen, according to local Palestinian sources.

The Israeli forces sent reinforcements to the city of Jenin and the camp that included dozens of military vehicles and bulldozers, and surrounded several homes to arrest "wanted persons," according to the sources.

The sources added Israeli airstrikes hit at least two missile sites in the Jenin camp and explosions were heard in the city.

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According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank has risen to 399 since the outbreak of Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct 7, 2023.  

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday said the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 29,313, with 69,333 others wounded. During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 118 Palestinians and wounded 163 others in the coastal enclave, the ministry added.

It noted that a number of victims still remain under the rubble amid heavy bombardment and a lack of civil defense and ambulance crews.

People clean debris after a reported Israeli attack on Syria, in Kfar Sousseh district, Damascus, Feb 21, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

Israeli airstrikes hit Syria, Lebanon

Israel conducted its second missile attack on areas southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus within hours on Wednesday, according to reports from a war monitor and local media.

The war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel targeted sites belonging to Iranian militias in the areas, adding there is currently no information regarding any human or material losses as a result of the attack.

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Additionally, rocket shells launched by Israeli forces landed in Beit Jinn in the western countryside of Damascus, near the border with the occupied Golan Heights, according to the Britain-based watchdog group.

The Sham FM radio, a pro-government media in Syria, said that air defenses intercepted missiles in the southern and southwestern countryside of Damascus. Furthermore, Israeli rocket fire was also reported in Mount al-Sheikh of southern Syria.

Also on Wednesday, two civilians were killed and three others injured during Israeli raids targeting southwest Lebanon, Lebanese medical and military sources told Xinhua

Eyewitnesses in the Mazzeh neighborhood west of Damascus told Xinhua that a thundering sound similar to that of an earthquake was heard when the Israeli strike occurred.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli missile attack hit a residential building in the Kafar Sousah neighborhood in Damascus, resulting in the deaths of two civilians, as confirmed by the Syrian Defense Ministry.

The observatory suggested that the attack in Kafar Sousah was an assassination attempt targeting individuals associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

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While Israel has frequently carried out missile strikes on Syrian targets, hitting residential areas is unusual and indicates an assassination attempt. This incident follows a similar attack on Jan 20, during which five IRGC officers were killed in a missile strike on the Western Mazzeh Villas neighborhood in Damascus. 

This picture shows a house destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Khiam near Lebanon's southern border on Feb 21, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

Also on Wednesday, two civilians were killed and three others injured during Israeli raids targeting southwest Lebanon, Lebanese medical and military sources told Xinhua.

According to official sources, rescue and ambulance teams equipped with bulldozers and cranes were sent to remove the rubble of several homes that were targeted in Majdal Zoun, Al-Mansouri, and Khiam, and to transport the injured to nearby hospitals.

Lebanese military sources told Xinhua that Israel carried out 12 air strikes on seven towns and villages in southern Lebanon and fired 35 shells on 13 towns and villages in the south, destroying eight homes and damaging 24 others.

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The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing increased tension since Oct 8, 2023, after Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas attack on Israel the previous day, prompting Israel to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 305 people on the Lebanese side, including 205 Hezbollah members and 59 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources. 

Food insecurity 'extremely critical'

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned on Wednesday that food insecurity in the northern Gaza Strip had reached an "extremely critical state" because of the restrictions imposed on the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The agency said in a press statement that 51 percent of missions planned by the UNRWA and other humanitarian institutions to deliver aid to and undertake assessments in northern Gaza this year have been denied access by Israeli authorities.

Palestinians converge for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Dec 21, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza on Tuesday urged the World Food Program to reverse its decision to suspend the delivery of food aid in the northern Gaza Strip

The number of trucks entering Gaza is significantly fewer than the target number of 500 trucks per day, with great difficulties in sending supplies through the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings, it said.

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UNRWA added that the lives of about 400,000 people were threatened by starvation in the northern Gaza Strip, calling on international institutions to increase their assistance, especially to the areas in the northern part of the enclave.

In addition, the media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza on Tuesday urged the World Food Program (WFP) to reverse its decision to suspend the delivery of food aid in the northern Gaza Strip.

The office said in a press statement that it considered the decision tantamount to "sentencing death to 75 percent of a million people and further deteriorates the humanitarian situation exponentially".

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The WFP said in a statement on social media platform X on Tuesday that it's "pausing the deliveries of life-saving food assistance to northern Gaza until safe conditions are in place for our staff and the people we are trying to reach".

The organization said the decision "has not been taken lightly", adding "the safety and security to deliver critical food aid -- and for the people receiving it -- must be ensured".