At least 25 Palestinians have been killed, including 13 children, and another 30 wounded in a pre-dawn Israeli strike on a home in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza that has been under siege for weeks, Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday.
A reporter for the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera posted footage of the bodies from the scene on X, saying at least 32 people had been killed and that the death toll was one of the biggest so far in Jabalia, where hundreds of people have been killed since the Israeli operation began last month.
Anas al-Sharif said the home belonged to the Aloush family and that no civil defence agencies or ambulances had been able to reach the area due to the Israeli siege and that locals were still searching for more victims.
It was not possible to independently verify the report as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza.
The Israeli military launched a new offensive on Jabalia and two other towns early last month which it said was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping but which Palestinians and human rights groups say is aimed at depopulating northern Gaza.
Food experts this week warned that the area faces imminent famine. In a rare alert, the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said: “If no effective action is taken by stakeholders with influence, the scale of this looming catastrophe is likely to dwarf anything we have seen so far in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023.”
Early on Sunday the Israeli military claimed in a post on X it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructures and a warehouse of weapons” in Jabalia, without providing any evidence.
Another five people were killed in a strike on the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the civil defence agency. “A number of civilians are still under the rubble,” the agency added.
At least 40 people were killed a day earlier in strikes across Gaza, including two journalist siblings, Ahmad Abu Sakhil and Zahra Abu Sakhil, who were killed together with their father, Muhammad, and three others when Israeli warplanes bombed a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported.
Gaza’s media office said their deaths raised the number of journalists killed by Israeli fire to 188 since 7 October 2023. A day earlier, the local radio journalist Khaled Abu Zir was killed, according to Palestinian media reports.
Others killed in Israeli attacks included two Palestinians who had been sheltering in the grounds of al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah and three men who had been released from Israeli detention moments before, Al Jazeera and Palestinian media reported, as well as children who were reportedly targeted by an Israeli airstrike as they tried to collect water in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Israel claims Hamas fighters hide among the civilian population and it hits them when it sees them. Hamas denies hiding among civilians.
A UN report this week said that nearly 70% of the people killed in the war in Gaza have been women and children.
At least 43,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza, with thousands more believed to be buried under the rubble and tens of thousands more wounded.
In Lebanon five siblings, three of whom were deaf and mute, were among at least 40 people killed by Israeli strikes late on Friday and on Saturday, local authorities and media reported.
Youssef Jundi, a local resident, told the Associated Press that his longtime neighbour and friend, Ghazwa Dabouk, was among the seven people killed in an Israeli strike on the port city of Tyre late on Friday. Dabouk’s sisters Elissar, Rabab and Fidaa, who were deaf and mute, were also killed in the airstrike, together with Dabouk’s brother Ali, who had autism.
The health ministry said two children were among the dead. Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.
The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city to evacuate but there were no orders published by the Israeli military spokesperson on social media platform X before Friday’s strikes.
Strikes in nearby towns on Saturday killed 13 people, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated to Hezbollah and its ally Amal, the health ministry said. Israel has previously threatened to target medics who treat Hezbollah members and killed scores of health workers across Lebanon including in attacks on medical centres.
Rights experts say affiliations to groups such as Hezbollah do not affect their protected status.
At least 20 more people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday across the eastern plains around the historic city of Baalbek, the health ministry said.
The Israeli military claimed it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the areas of Tyre and Baalbek, including fighters, “operational apartments” and weapons stores.
On Saturday, Hezbollah claimed rocket as well as missile fire at Israel’s north. The group said its fighters targeted Israeli troops and military sites including a base and an area north of Haifa.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report