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Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Sam Metz
Deir al-Balah, Gaza: Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including several children, on Saturday, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire, a day after Israel accused Hamas of new truce violations.
The strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, said officials at hospitals that received the bodies. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families.
Another airstrike hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 14 and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.
The Israeli military said it was responding to a breach of the ceasefire the previous day, in which its troops had identified eight gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, an area in southern Gaza controlled by Israeli forces under the truce.
The strikes came a day before the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt is set to open in Gaza’s southernmost city.
All of the territory’s border crossings – the rest are with Israel – have been closed throughout almost the entire war. Palestinians see Rafah as a lifeline for tens of thousands needing treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.
The crossing’s opening, initially limited, will occur as the US-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan moves into its second phase. Other challenging issues include demilitarising the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.
Egypt, one of the ceasefire mediators, in a statement condemned the Israeli strikes in the “strongest terms” and warned that they represent “a direct threat to the political course” of the truce. Qatar, another mediator, in a statement called Israel’s strikes a “dangerous escalation” and said continuing them poses a “direct threat” to the political process.
‘We don’t know if we’re at war or peace’
Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp in Khan Younis caused a fire, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.
Atallah Abu Hadaiyed said he had just finished praying when the explosion struck.
“We came running and found my cousins lying here and there, with fire raging. We don’t know if we’re at war or at peace, or what. Where is the truce? Where is the ceasefire they talked about?” he said, as people inspected ruins, including a bloodied mattress.
Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City apartment building strike killed three children, their aunt and their grandmother.
“The three girls are gone, may God have mercy on them. They were asleep, we found them in the street,” said a relative, Samir Al-Atbash, adding that the family were civilians with no connection to Hamas. Names were written on body bags lined up at the foot of a wall.
Shifa Hospital said the strike on the police station killed at least 14, including four policewomen, civilians and inmates. The hospital also said a man was killed in a strike on the eastern side of Jabaliya refugee camp.
Hamas called the latest strikes “a renewed flagrant violation” and urged the US and other mediating countries to push Israel to stop them.
“All available indicators suggest that we are dealing with a ‘Board of War’, not a ‘Board of Peace’,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on X, questioning the legitimacy of the Trump administration-proposed international body meant to govern Gaza.
Israel’s military, which has struck targets on both sides of the ceasefire’s dividing line, said its attacks since October have been responses to violations of the agreement.
The number reported killed on Saturday was several times higher than the daily average since the ceasefire began. As of Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry had recorded at least 520 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, during which some 1200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 251 others were taken hostage. The remains of the final hostage in Gaza were recovered early this week.
AP, Reuters
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