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Strike kills family of six
Israeli strikes killed 12 people in Gaza City on Tuesday, including a family of six, according to Gaza civil defence and witnesses, with one airstrike hitting a house belonging to the Al-Masri family in central Gaza City.
“Israeli strikes killed 12 people, including a family of six”
Gaza’s civil defence agency said six members of the Al-Masri family were killed, including four children, and Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital said it had received the bodies and the wounded.
Ahmed al-Masri, a survivor of the strike, told AFP, "The attack took us by surprise. I could hear the children crying out for help, yet I was unable to save them," describing how flames devoured the building.
Another witness, Youssef al-Masri, said the strike took place around 2am, adding, "While we were asleep, we heard the sound of a massive explosion and found that the house had been shelled, destroyed and engulfed in flames," as relatives gathered at the hospital.
Ceasefire holds, attacks continue
The deaths came as a fragile ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Hamas, but the violence in the Gaza Strip has continued and efforts to secure a lasting agreement to end the war have stalled, according to CNA.
The United Nations said Israeli attacks had killed at least 57 Palestinians from Jul 13 to 20, and UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva, "Nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza."
In the same period, the Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike targeting "a Hamas terrorist" in the area, while also stating it had intensified attacks in recent days.
Al Jazeera reported that the strike killed Firas and Salsabeel al-Masri and their three daughters and son as the family was sleeping, and it quoted Abu Yusuf al-Masri telling Reuters, "There is no relative calm, and there is absolutely no safe place at all," standing outside the family house.
Wider toll and legal concerns
Beyond the Al-Masri family, Gaza’s civil defence said six other people were killed on Tuesday in another Israeli strike in Gaza, while the Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike against "several armed terrorists transferring weapons in a vehicle" in southern Gaza.
“"raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes”
The UN said at least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed since the truce took effect last October, and the figures were described as considered reliable by the United Nations, while the Israeli military said it had lost five soldiers in Gaza over the same period.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the recent "intensification" of Israeli army attacks in Gaza, and Thameen Al-Khitan said 34 of the victims were "killed far from the yellow line" in statements carried by the BBC.
BBC also reported that the UN human rights office warned that the killing of civilians "raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes in Gaza," as it said the Israeli military has recently announced attacks targeting members of Palestinian armed groups it said were involved in the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel.