Israeli strike in Gaza kills 19 members of a family, health officials say

CBC

2 days ago

Israeli strikes overnight and into Tuesday killed more than 90 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, as U.S. President Donald Trump's timeline to land a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel keeps drifting.
One strike in the northern al-Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from Al-Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Al-Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.
Gaza's Health Ministry said in a daily report Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been taken to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead.
The Hamas politician killed in a strike early Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last election held among Palestinians, in 2006.
Hamas won a majority in the vote, but relations with the main Fatah faction that had long led the Palestinian Authority unravelled and ended with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The legislative council has not formally convened since.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
The latest attacks came after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release.
At least 875 killed near aid points, convoys, UN says
The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and convoys run by other relief groups.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF aid hubs, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.
WATCH | UN voices concern about how many Palestinians have died near aid sites:
Missile kills children at Gaza water station, Israel blames a malfunction
2 days ago
Israel says a missile malfunction caused it to strike a water station in Gaza over the weekend, killing six children. But the United Nations is voicing concern about how many Palestinians have died near aid distribution sites.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.
"The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.
The United Nations has called the GHF aid model "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.
Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Slightly more than half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 20 months ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies. They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.
Israel's air and ground campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and driven some 90 per cent of the population from their homes. Aid groups say they have struggled to bring in food and other assistance because of Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order, and experts have warned of famine.
Attacks against Palestinians in West Bank intensify: UN
There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.
"Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks," Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its "Iron Wall" operation — contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.
In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in more than two decades in the West Bank.
Since January, there have been 757 settler attacks on Palestinians or their properties, which is a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year, OHCHR said.
At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Fifty-three Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and in Israel in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed clashes, the office added.