Hospital officials report deaths of women and children in separate strikes on Gaza City and a Khan Younis tent camp, as casualty toll since October agreement passes 500.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, hospital authorities reported, in one of the deadliest single days of violence since an October truce agreement intended to halt hostilities.
The strikes targeted sites in both the north and south of the territory. Officials at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said a strike on an apartment building killed five people from one family, including a mother and three children. In the south, officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported that a strike on a tent camp sparked a fire, killing seven people from an extended family, including a father, three children, and three grandchildren.
The casualties bring the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the October 10 ceasefire to more than 500, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains casualty records that United Nations agencies and independent experts have historically viewed as generally reliable.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately comment on the specific strikes. The military has repeatedly stated that it conducts operations against Hamas military targets and takes precautions to avoid civilian casualties, accusing the militant group of embedding its infrastructure within populated areas.
Saturday’s violence represents a significant escalation and underscores the extreme fragility of the months-long ceasefire, which has been repeatedly marred by sporadic but often lethal outbreaks of fighting.
