An Israel airstrike in Gaza has killed at least 18 people from the same family, even as mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after 10 months of war.
The airstrike on Saturday hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to the town of Zawaida, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, to where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.
Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children aged two to 22, a grandmother to the children, and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.
Omar al-Dreemli, a relative, said: “We are in the morgue seeing indescribable scenes of limbs and severed heads and children who are dismembered.”
Abu Ahmed, a neighbour, said of Ejlah: “He was a peaceful man.” He said more than 40 civilians had been sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time.
The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it had struck “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza from where rockets had been fired toward Israel in recent weeks.
“Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed. The incident is under review,” it said.
Another mass evacuation was ordered for parts of central Gaza. An Israeli military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, in a post on X cited Palestinian rocket fire and said Palestinians in areas in and around the urban Maghazi refugee camp should leave.
Ahmad Omrani, one of those affected by the order, said: “The suffering began from the day we left our homes.” As heavily laden vehicles, bikes and donkey carts weaved through the rubble, he said: “We suffer from fear and anxiety, and fear for the children playing in the street. You cannot sleep, sit or eat well.”
Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to Deir al-Balah, said: “During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres.”
The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and about 84% of the territory has been put under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the UN.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 hostages were released in a November ceasefire. About 110 are believed to still be in Gaza, and Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants, without providing evidence. Gaza’s health ministry has said at least 40,074 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble and tens of thousands more have been injured.
Mediators have spent months pursuing a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The US president, Joe Biden, said on Friday that “we are closer than we have ever been” to a deal. But a senior Hamas official dismissed those comments on Saturday.
“To say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas political bureau member, told AFP. “We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats.”
Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.