Israeli attacks on residential areas in Gaza kill eight
Attacks hit neighbourhoods in Gaza City far beyond the line Israeli forces are meant to hold under the ceasefire. Click here to share on social
Attacks hit neighbourhoods in Gaza City far beyond the line Israeli forces are meant to hold under the ceasefire. Click here to share on social media Israeli attacks on two residential neighbourhoods in Gaza have killed at least eight Palestinians, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Both attacks targeted neighbourhoods in Gaza City on Saturday: a warplane destroyed an apartment in al-Nasr and artillery fire hit the nearby district of al-Zeitoun. The attacks followed Israel widening the range of areas it is hitting inside Gaza, pushing beyond the so-called “Yellow Line” its forces are meant to hold during the fragile “ceasefire”.
Two missiles struck a second-floor apartment in al-Nasr killing five people, medical sources at Al Shifa hospital complex told Al Jazeera. The building was destroyed and a neighbouring block damaged, witnesses said. Medical sources said several residents nearby were wounded in the densely populated area which is busy with pedestrians. Rescue teams were still searching for victims trapped beneath the rubble, sources added, warning that the death toll was likely to rise. Earlier on Saturday, artillery fire killed three people in al-Zeitoun, another Gaza City neighbourhood, medical sources said, noting that similar strikes had recently hit the nearby district of Tel al-Hawa.
Israel confirmed it carried out strikes across Gaza, reported the Associated Press news agency. Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-brokered “ceasefire” in October, part of a broader plan put forward by President Donald Trump to end the war and begin rebuilding. Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued near daily strikes, which have killed at least 1,127 Palestinians. They include at least 260 children killed since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It said five Israeli soldiers have been killed in the same period. At least 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023.
Israeli media reported earlier this week that the military now controls close to 70 percent of Gaza, well beyond the roughly half of the territory its forces were expected to hold under the “ceasefire” agreement. Reporting from Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the expansion was “shrinking” and “fragmenting” the territory into smaller, disconnected areas, making it “very difficult” for Palestinians to move from one place to another. The process was leading to the “erasure of urban life” and would also mean lost livelihoods for residents, he added.
The BriefWire