Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 59, including 14 members of the same family

Israeli air and artillery fire continue to bombard Gaza, killing at least 59 people on Friday, including 14 members of the same family.

Among those, 42 people were killed in Gaza City and the north of the besieged territory, according to medical sources.

media’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said it was another “sleepless night” in the area.

“Israeli forces are using remotely operated explosive devices in neighbourhoods, coupled with heavy air and artillery attacks covering much of the eastern part of Gaza City,” he reported.

“The Israeli military is also using the intimidating tactic of illuminating the skies above Gaza City. For the second night in a row, they used flare bombs, creating fear among displaced people already forced to seek shelter anywhere they can find it.”

The 14 members of the same family – the Sultan family – who were killed, also died in Gaza City in a single Israeli attack on their home in the at-Twam area.

Palestinian group Hamas condemned Friday’s air raids and the strike on the Sultans, accusing Israel of waging a campaign of “terror and organised war crimes” through the destruction of residential towers and targeting of civilians, saying such actions are in violation of international law.

It also decried continued global “inaction and complicity”, saying it is only emboldening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to intensify genocide and forced displacement against Palestinians.

In Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood, Israeli drone fire killed a child and wounded others, a source at the nearby al-Ahli Hospital told media.

Elsewhere, Israeli attacks destroyed a school located in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza.

“Many people had taken refuge in it, but have now been forced back into the streets one more time,” media’s Mahmoud added.

Meanwhile, in western Gaza City, an Israeli attack targeted a cluster of residences, including a residential tower across the street from a UNRWA medical facility, Mahmoud reported.

“As far as we know, the tower is still standing, though it sustained a great deal of damage. But the cluster of homes was completely destroyed.”

In a statement on X on Friday, the Israeli military said it struck 500 targets in Gaza City this week, as it advances an assault to forcibly displace about one million residents and seize control of the area.

Israel’s security cabinet in August approved a plan by Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, which has displaced tens of thousands of people.

However, Gaza’s Government Media Office on Friday said more than 1.3 million Palestinians, including 350,000 children, remain in Gaza City and the north, despite Israel’s relentless bombardment and forced evacuation threats.

‘This is not life’

As Israel pushes to displace residents of Gaza City to the south of the enclave, Palestinians have been saying that nowhere is safe in the territory.

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, designated by Israel as a so-called “humanitarian zone”, which lacks water access and sanitation, among other amenities.

“This is not life,” Shade al-Wawi, a displaced Palestinian, told media from al-Mawasi. “We cannot do it any more.”

“We are smelling dust, and with it, smelling grief and death,” he said.

In less than a month, more than 70,000 people have made the arduous journey from northern to southern Gaza following Israel’s move to forcibly evacuate Palestinians from “combat zones”, according to UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram.

“This is already an incredibly crowded area, with hundreds of thousands of people here, with not enough services or supplies to meet their needs – let alone the influx of people coming from the north,” he said of al-Mawasi.

media’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from al-Mawasi, said Palestinians there were facing a “desperate reality”.

“Families are told to come here, but are turning back because there are no spaces left for them to ensure a dignified life, which has been stripped away by Israel’s repeated evacuation orders and mass bombing,” he reported.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, according to local health authorities, caused a hunger crisis and wider humanitarian disaster, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.

Israel releases Gaza prisoners

Separately on Friday, 13 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza were released by Israel after months of detention under what medical and local sources described as harsh and degrading conditions, Anadolu news agency reported.

The detainees were freed at the Kissufim crossing east of central Gaza and immediately transferred by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah due to their deteriorating health.

Medical personnel said the men arrived in frail condition, suffering from malnutrition and physical injuries consistent with abuse during captivity.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, a nongovernmental group, has said thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been swept up in mass arrests since Israel’s offensive began on October 7, 2023, many subjected to forced disappearances and prolonged incommunicado detention.

Qatari PM to meet Trump

As conditions deteriorate on the ground, the UN General Assembly on Friday voted overwhelmingly to endorse a declaration on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

Separately, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is in New York meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly President Donald Trump, days after US ally Israel attacked and killed Hamas members in Doha.

The attack on Tuesday was widely condemned in the Middle East and by the UN Security Council as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge, and derail efforts to broker a truce in Gaza.

Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.