Gaza Genocide29 June, 20263 min read
Israeli Strike Kills Three Palestinians, Including 8-Year-Old, In Deir Al-Balah
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strike. A child was among the dead.
Al Jazeera was read line by line by the Watchdog: 0.5. See the score →
Tent strike in Deir al-Balah
Israeli forces struck a tent sheltering displaced people in central Gaza on Monday, killing at least three Palestinians including an 8-year-old boy and his grandfather, medical officials said.
The drone strike hit a neighborhood in Deir al-Balah, and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital identified the fatalities as Hassan al-Hanagra and his 8-year-old grandchild, Malik Abu Shawish, along with another man.
In the same reporting, Israel’s military said a separate strike on Sunday in southern Gaza killed Zaher Abu Salem, whom it described as a member of Islamic Jihad involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war.
The Sentinel Colorado account also said a flurry of strikes Sunday killed four people, including a 13-year-old girl, Eileen al-Farra, who was hit by shrapnel from Israeli tank shelling and was buried Monday.
The Straits Times reported that an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians, including a child, in Deir al Balah on Monday, citing the Gazan health ministry and adding that the Israeli military official confirmed an air strike had been carried out without further details.
Competing casualty frames
Al Jazeera described the Monday drone attack as killing eight-year-old Malik Wael Abu Shaweesh, along with Ali Fayez Isbaitan and Hassan Salman al-Hanajra, after it hit the Wadi al-Salqa bridge on al-Baraka Street in central Gaza. In the West Bank, Al Jazeera said a 15-year-old boy, Ahmad Jawad Jaber, died on the way to hospital after being shot in the chest and head during an Israeli raid on the Umm al-Sharayit neighbourhood in el-Bireh, near Ramallah, and quoted Laila Ghannam saying, “Today, we witnessed a clear-cut execution in broad daylight.” B’Tselem’s report, as quoted in Al Jazeera, said Israeli forces have killed 241 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, and it attributed the deaths to “a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability.”
The Sentinel Colorado account, by contrast, said Israel’s military said the strike was targeting a militant but did not immediately name him or say if he was killed, while also stating that Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,058 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Sentinel Colorado also said the Gaza Health Ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts, while noting it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Wider war toll and accountability
Sentinel Colorado said that while the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October, Israeli forces have carried out near-daily strikes, killing 1,045 Palestinians, including more than 360 women and children, according to health officials in Gaza. It also stated that Israel says it is targeting militants, often saying they were planning attacks on Israeli troops who hold more than 60% of the Gaza Strip, and added that five Israeli soldiers have been killed in militant attacks since the ceasefire. In the West Bank, Le Monde reported that a raid in Silwad, north of Ramallah, left a Palestinian man dead, with the Israeli army saying, "two terrorists attacked two soldiers", and that the second suspect was "neutralized and apprehended".
Le Monde also said the Palestinian Ministry of Health named the man killed as Abdel Halim Hammad and reported that his brother had also been killed by Israeli forces in 2021, while noting that his body has still not been returned to his relatives. B’Tselem’s investigation, as carried in the B’Tselem source, said that from 7 October 2023 to 7 June 2026 Israeli forces killed 235 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank, and it cited Central Command Chief Avi Bluth’s remarks that “we are killing like we haven’t killed since 1967.”