A Palestinians woman reacts as she sits amidst the rubble of her home, destroyed during overnight Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, on August 7, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

Gaza City, August 7 (RHC)-- The Israeli military has carried out a fresh round of airstrikes against various areas across the besieged Gaza Strip, drawing retaliatory rocket fire from Palestinian resistance fighters in the impoverished coastal enclave.

Death toll from the Tel Aviv regime’s atrocities has soared to at least 34, including eight children.  Palestinian media outlets reported that at least two people were killed and eight others sustained injuries on Sunday when Israeli fighter jets struck Jabalia refugee camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network also said a number of Palestinians were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a house close to al-Tawbah Mosque, which lies next to Jabalia camp.

Israeli warplanes went on to bombard targets in the city of Beit Lahia, and in Beit Hanoun city, which is situated on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip. There are no immediate reports of casualties as a result of the air raids.

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Meanwhile, rocket sirens blared in a number of Israeli communities close to the Gaza border, including the town of Sderot. No reports of injuries or damage were immediately available though.

Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council is going to hold an emergency closed door meeting on Monday to discuss the latest Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.   Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said in a statement that the meeting was requested by the United Arab Emirates along with China, France, Ireland and Norway.  “The UAE has emphasized the need to restore calm to the Gaza Strip, reduce escalation, and preserve civilian lives,” UAE Foreign Ministry strategic communications director Afra Mahash al-Hameli said in a statement.

She added that Abu Dhabi “expresses its deep concern over the current escalation and calls for exercising maximum restraint, to prevent being drawn into new levels of violence and instability.”

During the Monday meeting, Security Council members will discuss “the current developments and ways to support international efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace,” the senior Emirati official pointed out.

The decision to hold a meeting comes hours after the Palestinian mission to the UN reached out to Security Council members, calling on them to “assume [their] responsibilities to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and provide international protection to the Palestinian people,” Mansour’s office stated.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation also condemned in strongest terms the latest Israeli violence against Palestinians living in Gaza.  “It is of particularly grave concern that Israeli military statements indicate that the operation would “take a long time” and that the ongoing attacks continue to place innocent civilians at severe risk,” it said in a statement.

“Attacks that kill innocent civilians have no justification, and they are more abhorrent as they are committed by an occupying power which has besieged the Gaza Strip for over a decade in contravention of international law.

“As an occupying power, Israel has specific obligations in terms of international human rights and humanitarian law, which it continues to breach without being held accountable,” the South African foreign ministry noted.

The ministry also called on the international community to act more decisively on the Israeli occupation forces and to put an end to the violence, emphasizing that “The killing of children by Israel must urgently be addressed.”