Smoke billows from the Gaza Strip, on December 10, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Tuesday (December 10, 2024) that Israeli strikes in the north of the Palestinian territory had killed 25 people, including women and children.

“At 8:00 PM (1800 GMT) last night, Israeli strikes targeted a multi-story building belonging to the Al-Kahlut family, killing 25 people. Sixteen bodies have been identified, while others remain trapped under the rubble,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding five women and five children were among the dead.

The Israeli army did not comment on the strike.

Bassal said “residents, without adequate support, are attempting to rescue those still buried”.

The north of the Gaza Strip has been the focus of an intense Israeli military operation for more than two months, which the army says is intended to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping there.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,758 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the UN.

Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024. In recent days, the military has launched an intense ground and air assault in northern Gaza, particularly in and around the city of Jabalia.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza, and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, residents said, forcing many families to leave their homes.

Residents said Israeli forces have effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon their permission for families willing to leave the three towns, heeding evacuation orders.

Gaza’s health ministry said the eight-day-old Israeli incursions in the north have so far killed dozens of Palestinians, with dozens of others feared dead on roads and under rubble of their houses, beyond the reach of medical teams.

Many Jabalia residents posted on social media platforms: “We will not leave, we die, and we don’t leave.”

The northern part of Gaza, home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory a year ago, after the October. 7 attacks on Israeli towns by militants who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages.

After a year of Israeli assaults that killed 42,000 Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of residents have come back to ruined northern areas. A week ago Israel sent troops back to root out fighters it said were regrouping for more attacks. Hamas denies fighters operate among civilians.

The escalation in northern Gaza has taken place alongside a huge Israeli air assault and ground campaign on a separate front in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, which like Hamas is an ally of Iran.

“As the world is focused on Lebanon and possible Israeli strike against Iran, Israel is wiping out Jabalia,” said Nasser, a resident of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The occupation is blowing up roads and destroying residential districts. People also don’t find anything to eat, they are trapped inside their homes, fearing bombs could fall onto their heads,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that forces operating throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours had attacked about 40 targets and killed dozens of militants.

“The forces of Division 162 continue to operate in the Jabalia region, in the last day the forces killed dozens of terrorists and found explosives, weapons, grenades and other means of warfare in the region,” it said.

The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and nearby areas with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in Gaza. They have also voiced concerns over severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there is a risk of famine there.

Some tank shells landed in some streets of the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan, where tanks arrived at the edges of the territory, residents said, spreading panic among the population further south.

Pople react during a farewell for Palestinian Ahmed Khalil killed in an Israeli airstrike, at his home, in the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Saturday(August 17, 2024) killed 15 people from a Palestinian family, including nine children and three women.

The strike hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. The Israeli military did not offer an immediate comment.

“The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead,” Mr. Bassal said.

Mr. Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.

A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight.

“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul said as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.

“There were a lot of children and women inside… What have they done to deserve this?”

AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.

More than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.

The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,005 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

A Palestinian woman looks out of her window after an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip in Rafah on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
AP

Hezbollah’s escalating attacks on Israel risk “dragging Lebanon into a war”, Israel’s military said Sunday, after renewed cross-border exchanges of fire that have raised fears of a wider conflict.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is allied with Hamas, which touched off the latest violence with a bloody October 7 rampage in Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes on the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 4,300 Palestinians, also mainly civilians.

It has also exchanged fire with Hezbollah across its northern border, with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus accusing the group of a dangerous escalation.

“Hezbollah… is dragging Lebanon into a war that it will gain nothing from, but stands to lose a lot,” Conricus said.

“Hezbollah is playing a very, very dangerous game. They’re escalating the situation. We see more and more attacks every day,” he said.

– AFP

U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken on Saturday discussed Hamas’ attack on Israel with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, the UK Foreign Secretary and Qatari Prime Minister.

“Spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister @FaisalbinFarhan to discuss today’s appalling attacks on Israel. I reiterated Israel’s right to self-defence and called for coordinated efforts to achieve an immediate halt to the violent attacks by Hamas terrorists and other militants,” Blinken wrote on ‘X’ on Saturday.

He also discussed the attack with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. “We appreciate Egypt’s ongoing efforts and reiterate the urgent need to halt the Hamas attacks,” Blinken wrote.

In his talks with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Blinken reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself, rescue any hostages, and protect its citizens.

– ANI