71 reported killed in Israeli air raids in southern Gaza

GAZA: The death toll from the overnight air raids carried out by Israel in the southern Gaza Strip has risen to 71, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Many of those killed were women and children.

A medical source said that hundreds were also wounded during the bombardments, which hit homes in Rafah and Khan Younis.

A video clip posted by Al Jazeera Arabic on X showed medical aid workers carrying a victim on a body bag and another severely injured patient on a stretcher to a hospital in southern Gaza.

استمرار وصول الشهداء والمصابين جراء القصف الإسرائيلي على #رفح و #خانيونس إلى مشافي القطاع#فيديو pic.twitter.com/BY5bWE2uCa

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) October 17, 2023

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said it carried out more than 200 strikes overnight targeting Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades says that up to 250 captives are held in Gaza and that it is prepared to release those with foreign nationalities as soon as “circumstances allow”.

The WHO has warned there are only “24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left” in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a ceasefire in Gaza. The US-led opposition towards it was for being insufficiently critical of Hamas.