An Israeli airstrike killed 12 members of a family, including seven children, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian relief agency Civil Defense reported.
A video posted by the agency on its Telegram channel Friday evening showed its staff recovering victims from under the rubble of the Khallah family home in Jabalia.
“All the martyrs come from the same family, including seven children, the oldest being six years old,” civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told AFP.
Basal added that the airstrike injured 15 other people.
The Israeli army told AFP it had struck “several terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”
“According to an initial review, the number of casualties reported following the strike does not match the information held by the IDF,” he added.
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombings of children in Gaza, calling them “cruelty.” “Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not a war,” he said. “I want to say it because it touches my heart.”
Israel continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday, more than 14 months after it began its attack on Gaza.
At least eight people were killed by a drone missile that hit a residential building on the commercial street of the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Four people were also killed in an air raid on Beit Hanoon, Tel Aviv Tribune correspondents said. The victims were two girls and their parents.
The bodies of three brothers were also found in the rubble of a bombed house near Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Trapped in a “graveyard”
Gaza has become a “graveyard” as heavy winter rains, hunger, dire living conditions and ongoing hostilities continue to put lives at risk, Louise Wateridge, the Gaza’s emergency chief, warned on Friday. UNRWA (the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees).
“Here, an entire society is now a cemetery… More than two million people are trapped,” she said from the Nuseirat camp.
“It is impossible for families to seek refuge in these conditions,” she said. “Most people live under fabric, they don’t even have waterproof structures and 69 percent of the buildings here have been damaged or destroyed. There is absolutely no place where people can shelter from these elements. »
UNRWA provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Israeli politicians passed a law in October banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, while raising the prospect of similar measures against other humanitarian agencies.
Sweden announced plans on Friday to stop funding UNRWA in response to Israel’s ban, but pledged to double its aid to Gaza through other groups.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Swedish government’s decision was “disappointing” and came “at the worst time for Palestinian refugees.”
In a resolution adopted Friday, the United Nations General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion clarifying what international law says about Israel’s responsibility to authorize aid work UN, international organizations and third countries on the Palestinian territory. .
Earlier this year, ICJ judges ordered Israel to end its offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, withdraw from the enclave and ensure security and humanitarian access to the population of Gaza.
Israel did not comply.
The interim measures were part of a complaint filed by South Africa – later joined by several other countries – accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.