GAZA -- At least 40 Palestinians were killed and many others injured on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes that targeted residential homes in the central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources told Xinhua that Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent raids on several homes in the areas of Nuseirat, Al-Zawaida, and Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, killing dozens of people and wounding many others.

The sources added that civil defense crews were able to recover 40 bodies, while dozens remained under the rubble, noting that the dead and wounded were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.