Gaza’s civil defense agency on Saturday said that an overnight Israeli strike on the Khan Yunis refugee camp killed at least 11 people, including three babies up to a year old.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported 11 people were killed “after the bombardment of the Al-Bayram family home in the Khan Yunis camp” in southern Gaza at about 3am.
Eight of the dead had been identified and were all from the same extended family, including a boy and girl, both one-year-olds, and a month-old baby, Bassal said.
Photo: Reuters
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the strike, saying the attack targeted a “terrorist Hamas member,” without giving further details.
At the scene, rescue workers and residents searched through the rubble with their bare hands, illuminating the destruction with hand-held torches.
One rescuer carried the lifeless body of an infant from the wreckage, footage captured by an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist showed.
Fayka Abu Hatab, a resident in a nearby building, said she “saw a bright light, then there was an explosion, and dust covered the entire area.”
“We couldn’t see anything, it all went dark,” Abu Hatab said.
“All of our windows were destroyed, our rooms were destroyed, the neighbors’ house was destroyed,” she added.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said that at least 2,396 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,495.
Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza, saying Hamas had diverted supplies. Israel says the blockade is meant to pressure the militants into releasing hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
UN agencies have urged Israel to lift restrictions, saying that Gazans were experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and warning of famine.
Meanwhile, Israel was issuing orders to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of an expanded offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported on Saturday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked truce mediator Qatar.
Several news outlets reported the military had begun sending the orders for reservists to replace conscripts and active-duty soldiers in Israel and the occupied West Bank so they can be redeployed to Gaza.
A military spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the reports, but relatives of AFP journalists were among those who received mobilization orders.
Netanyahu accused Qatar of “playing both sides with its double talk.” Posting on X, he said Qatar had to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism.”
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