Gaza Genocide · 21 July, 2026 · 3 min read
Israeli Strikes Kill Gaza Civilians, Including Family in Sabra Neighborhood During Ceasefire
A family in Sabra was killed when an Israeli strike set their home ablaze. The Israeli military confirmed the Sabra strike and said the target was a Hamas militant.
Civilian deaths and ceasefire effectiveness vs tunnel operations under ceasefire.
2 of 3 outlets skipped it: a father, wife, and four children died asleep.
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Same story, two versions
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Algemeiner
“Israeli forces are continuing to uncover and destroy Hamas tunnels inside the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire”Read the original ↗
Vatican News stresses civilian deaths, while Algemeiner spotlights tunnel-destruction details.
Ceasefire, still deadly
Nine months into a ceasefire, Gaza civilians continued to be killed, including a father, his wife and their four children who died while they were asleep in the family house in the Sabra neighbourhood when the attack set their home ablaze.
“Gaza civilians continue to be killed 9 months into ceasefire”
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying its target was a Hamas militant and it was still looking into the result of the attack, while a grandfather lamented, "There is no relative calm, and there is no safe place to go," noting there had been no prior warning or alarm.
Palestinian medics said that later on Tuesday, the IDF targeted a vehicle in the central Gaza Strip, killing two people and wounding others.
The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants took effect, according to Gaza health officials.
The truce halted full-scale fighting but has not stopped near-daily Israeli strikes, with Israel saying it is targeting militants and mediators including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States trying to advance U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for ending the conflict in Gaza.
Underground campaign continues
Even during the ceasefire, Israeli forces continued to uncover and destroy Hamas tunnels inside the Gaza Strip, carrying out a slow underground campaign in territory behind the Yellow Line, according to a new report by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.
The episode of Kan’s documentary series Dokotayim follows Lt. Col. Y., an officer overseeing the Israeli military’s effort to dismantle Hamas’s subterranean network in southern Gaza, describing troops moving through shafts, passageways, and underground rooms.
In one tunnel shown by Kan, soldiers enter what Lt. Col. Y. identifies as a Hamas commander’s room with porcelain sinks, telephone wiring, electricity, and a bed fitted with a mattress supplied as humanitarian aid "from the people of Japan."
The report says the mattress had not reached a displaced Gaza family or civilian shelter and was underground inside infrastructure used by Hamas, fitting a pattern Israel has documented in which civilian goods and reconstruction materials enter Gaza and later appear within Hamas’s military network.
Israeli forces have repeatedly accused Hamas of diverting cement, steel, wood, fuel, food, and other resources intended for Gaza’s population, while Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said in 2021 that the network ran for roughly 500 kilometers, or 310 miles.
New Hamas leader sets terms
In a first speech since being elected Hamas political chief, Khalil al-Hayya called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a full Israeli withdrawal, and faster reconstruction.
“Khalil al-Hayya called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”
He also urged Palestinian unity, rejected displacement, and called for stronger regional ties amid the US war on Iran, framing his demands as part of a broader political agenda for Gaza.
The Vatican News report described how, despite the ceasefire halting full-scale fighting, near-daily Israeli strikes continued and the deaths added to a toll of more than 1,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire took effect.V
The Kan documentary episode described Israel’s continued tunnel work, including Israeli officials explaining that a tunnel shaft is often only the beginning and that routes can stretch beneath neighborhoods, split into several directions, and connect fighting positions, storage rooms, command centers, and living quarters.
Against that backdrop, the Al Jazeera account of al-Hayya’s speech set the immediate political stakes for what a “permanent ceasefire” would require, while the ongoing Israeli strikes and tunnel dismantling described in the other reports underscored how the conflict’s operational reality has not stopped.