UN agencies sounded the alarm about war-torn Gaza on Tuesday, saying that 10 children a day are losing one or both legs and half a million Palestinians suffer “catastrophic” hunger.
There was no let-up in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip and fighting against the Palestinian group Hamas over the October 7 resistance campaign, as it maintained the siege on the territory’s 2.4 million people.
Palestinian officials said one strike killed 10 members of Qatar-based Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh’s family, including his sister. Two other attacks on schools kill at least 14 people.
Since October 7, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,658 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Israel’s military did not immediately confirm the strike, which the civil defence agency in Hamas-ruled Gaza said hit the family’s house in the northern Al-Shati refugee camp, leaving some bodies trapped under the rubble.
The military said its forces struck Hamas operatives “inside school compounds” in Al-Shati and another area of northern Gaza overnight, accusing them of involvement in the October 7 resistance campaign and “in holding hostages captive.”
Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP: “There are 10 martyrs and several wounded as a result of the strike, including Zahr Haniyeh, sister of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.”
Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in a strike in April, when Israel’s military accused them of “terrorist activities.”
At the time, the Hamas chief said about 60 of his relatives had died in the Gaza war.
The reported strike came three days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of the war was winding down, but that the war would continue.
He also said some forces would be redeployed for “defensive purposes” to the northern border with Lebanon, where fears of a major war against Iran-backed group Hezbollah have grown after months of cross-border fire.