JERUSALEM: At least eight Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded in a series of Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and Friday, according to medical sources and Gaza’s civil defense service.

The latest casualty occurred on Friday when Israeli forces stationed east of the central Gaza Strip opened live fire at a group of Palestinians near the Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij refugee camps.

Local sources reported that one Palestinian was killed after being shot in the neck, while several others sustained injuries during the shooting.

Friday’s fatal incident follows a wave of attacks across the enclave on Thursday, Gaza’s civil defense rescue service said on Thursday that seven people were killed in separate Israeli strikes through the day, while the Israeli army claimed three of the victims were “military operatives.”

Six of the seven were killed in various parts of Gaza City.

Two people were killed in a drone strike on a car, while one was killed in a drone attack on a tent in an encampment for displaced people, the rescue service and Al-Shifa hospital said.

“Two people, a woman and a child, were killed and others were wounded when Israeli aircraft bombed a residential building” in Gaza City, the civil defense said.

A woman was also killed by artillery shelling in Gaza City, health officials reported.

The civil defense reported that “one person was killed by Israeli fire southeast of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.”

Hamas on Thursday denied Israeli claims that it uses Gaza hospitals for military activities, after the army said on Wednesday that militants “advanced attacks from within (Kamal Adwan) hospital” in northern Gaza.

Hamas said in a statement that it called the accusations “criminal incitement.”

Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has displaced nearly all the population of Gaza and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The death toll from Israel’s ongoing genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip has reached 74,254, while the number of injured has risen to 175,306, according to medical sources.

Since a ceasefire was declared in October last year, Israeli forces have killed at least 1,450 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry.