GAZA CITY, Palestine

Three people were killed when an Israeli fighter jet struck a car in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, a medical source said.

The strike targeted the car in an area designated by the Israeli army as a “safe zone” for civilians in the city’s western part, witnesses said.

The attack came hours after at least 87 people were killed and 40 others injured in an Israeli airstrike late Saturday that destroyed entire residential block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

The Israeli army has pressed ahead with a massive offensive, now in its 16th day, in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege on the area.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal onslaught that has killed more than 42,600 people, mostly women and children, and injured 99,800 others since last year following a Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala