DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least nine Palestinians overnight, according to local hospitals, even as much of the world’s attention was focused on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The nine people were killed in at least four separate strikes in Gaza City, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The hospital said the victims included two women and two children.
Footage of one of the strikes showed a massive hole in an upper floor in what appeared to be a residential apartment building. The blast blew holes through interior walls and scattered blood-stained belongings across the room and into the street.
“They say the war has stopped, but the war has not stopped,” said Walid Shbeir, the uncle of one of the men killed in the strikes, as family members sobbed over the bodies of the victims at the hospital. “Every night there is killing, and we have martyrs. Every night, in the morning, in the evening, and at night, this killing is continuous for us.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes. Last week, Israel killed the top Hamas military leader, two weeks after strikes that killed his predecessor.
The fatalities were the latest in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the shaky ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire.
Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 936 since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is generally seen as reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to violations of the truce or threats to its troops. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas' October 2023 attack that killed some 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. __ Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
