Israeli airstrike on Gaza home kills six children
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israel’s war against the Islamic militant group Hamas has led to a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East, notably between Israel and Iran in recent weeks. Now attention has returned to Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million people are sheltering, many displaced by fighting elsewhere.
Relatives sobbed and hugged children’s shrouded bodies at al-Najjar hospital. “Hamza my beloved. Your hair looks so pretty,” a grandmother said.
The fatalities included AbdelFattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children, his brotherin-law Ahmed Barhoum said. Barhoum lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their five-year-old daughter, Alaa.
“This is a world devoid of all human values and morals,” Barhoum said, crying as he cradled Alaa’s body. “The only martyrs were women and children.”
Israel has insisted for months that it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, where it says many remaining Hamas militants are holed up, despite calls for restraint from the international community including Israel’s staunchest ally, the U.S.
Some Palestinians left an area of Rafah near the border with Egypt on Saturday after receiving an evacuation alert from the Israeli army. Minutes later, a strike hit. It was not known whether anyone was killed.
Also on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Bureji in central Gaza, killing at least one man and injuring two others, according to authorities at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups that left about 1,200 people dead, the vast majority civilians, and saw about 250 kidnapped and taken into Gaza. Israel says about 130 hostages remain in Gaza, although more than 30 have died.
Frustration continues among many in Israel, and thousands of anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv again called for new elections and a deal to free remaining hostages.
“We don’t know what to do anymore, so we are here crying and shouting for help,” said one protester, Iris Milnar.
The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 34,049, with 76,901 wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that the bodies of 37 people killed by Israeli strikes were taken to hospitals over the past 24 hours. The Hamas-run health authorities do not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their count but say at least two-thirds have been children and women.