GAZA, Palestine 

Israeli police detained 18 people, including three Canadian nationals from the same family, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.

"An Israeli special force, wearing civilian clothes, arrested the Palestinian Ahmed Hashem Al-Agha and his sons Hashem and Baraa, who hold Canadian citizenship," Ahmed al-Agha, dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Palestine, told Anadolu.

Al-Agha said the Israeli force reached the area that the displaced family was staying in the west of Khan Yunis, wearing civilian attire and in civilian vehicles.

They also arrested 15 other individuals from the al-Agha family, according to information Anadolu obtained.

The Israeli army has launched a series of intense raids on Khan Younis and its surrounding areas since Jan. 22 as it advanced in the southern and western areas of the city, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee.

The death toll from the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 27,840 as of Thursday, in addition to 67,317 wounded since Oct. 7, and as a result, Tel Aviv is being prosecuted in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on charges of "genocide" against the Palestinians.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul