Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 29, including children, despite ceasefire
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Deir Al-Balah: Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 29 Palestinians in Gaza, marking one of the highest casualty figures since the October ceasefire intended to halt hostilities, according to hospitals in the territory.
The attacks came a day after Israel accused Hamas of new ceasefire violations and targeted multiple locations, including a tent camp, an apartment building, and a police station.
The strikes occurred a day before the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, a crucial component of last year’s US-brokered ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the war, is scheduled to reopen. Most of Gaza’s border crossings have remained closed for nearly the entire conflict, and Palestinians rely on Rafah as a lifeline for medical treatment outside the territory, where the majority of healthcare infrastructure has been destroyed. The crossing’s reopening, initially limited, represents a key step in the second phase of the ceasefire, which also includes plans to demilitarise the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and establish a new government to oversee reconstruction.
Despite progress in negotiations, Saturday’s attacks underline that fatalities in Gaza continue to rise even as the ceasefire advances.
Nasser Hospital reported that the strike on the tent camp caused a fire, killing seven people, including a father, his three children, and three grandchildren. Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City apartment building strike claimed the lives of three children, their aunt, and grandmother. A separate strike on a police station killed at least 11 officers, including four policewomen, and inmates held at the facility. Hamas’ Interior Ministry confirmed that civilians were also among the casualties.
Hamas described the strikes as a “renewed flagrant violation” of the ceasefire and called on the United States and other mediating nations to pressure Israel to halt the attacks.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not comment on specific targets but said the overnight and Saturday strikes were in response to alleged ceasefire violations the previous day. Israel’s military has maintained that its operations since October have targeted violations along both sides of the ceasefire’s yellow line. In a statement on Friday, the military said it killed three militants exiting a tunnel in an Israeli-controlled zone in Rafah.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-led administration, has recorded 509 Palestinian deaths from Israeli fire since the ceasefire began on October 10. The ministry’s casualty records are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
With PTI inputs