At least 30 Palestinians killed in fresh Israeli strikes in Gaza
The casualties included two women and six children from two different families.
Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians on Saturday, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire aimed at stopping the fighting.
Strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including lethal ones on an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies said.
The casualties included two women and six children from two different families. An airstrike also hit a police station in Gaza City, killing and wounding at least eight.
The series of strikes also came a day before the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt is set to open in Gaza’s southernmost city.
All of the territory’s border crossings have been closed throughout almost the entire war.
Palestinians see the Rafah crossing as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.
Rafah’s opening, limited at first, marks the first major step in the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire.
Reopening borders is among the challenging issues on the agenda for the phase now underway, which also include demilitarising the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.
Still, Saturday’s strikes are a reminder that the death toll in Gaza is still rising even as the ceasefire agreement inches forward.
Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City apartment building strike killed three children, their aunt and grandmother on Saturday morning, while the strike on the police station killed at least eight: officers and inmates held at the station.
Meanwhile, Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.
Hamas called Saturday’s strikes “a renewed flagrant violation” and urged the United States and other mediating countries to push Israel to stop strikes.
A military official, speaking on Saturday on the condition of anonymity in line with protocol, could not comment on the specific targets, but said Israel carried out overnight and Saturday strikes in response to what the army said were ceasefire violations the day before.
Israel’s military, which has hit targets on both sides of the ceasefire’s yellow line, has said strikes since October have been in response to violations of the agreement.
In a statement on Friday, the military said they killed three militants exiting a tunnel in an Israeli-controlled zone in Rafah.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded 509 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on October 10.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
