Updated
Jun 25, 2024, 11:02 PM
Published
Jun 25, 2024, 03:52 PM
CAIRO – Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate air strikes on Gaza City early on June 25, and the dead included a sister of Mr Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the militant Islamist Hamas group, Gaza health officials and medics said.
Israeli tanks also pressed deeper into western areas of Rafah in the south of the enclave overnight, blowing up homes, residents said.
Two of the Israeli air strikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, medics said.
Another strike on a house in the Shati (Beach) camp, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, killed 10 others. The house in Shati belonged to the extended family of Hamas political chief Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar. One of his sisters was killed, along with other relatives, said family members and medics.
Mr Hassan Kaskin, a neighbour, said the Haniyeh family house was hit without advance warning before dawn on June 25. Footage obtained by Reuters showed the multi-floor building reduced to rubble.
“They were 10 individuals, three of them were scattered outside the house and seven under the rubble – with no prior warning, with people around them, and there are injuries among the neighbours,” Mr Kaskin told Reuters.
Mr Haniyeh, who leads Hamas’ diplomacy and is the public face of the group that has been running Gaza, has lost many relatives in Israeli air strikes since Oct 7, including three sons.
Israel’s military said its forces had targeted militants overnight in Gaza City who had been involved in the planning of attacks on Israel.
The militants included some involved in holding hostages and some who took part in Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct 7.
The Israeli Air Force struck two structures “used by Hamas terrorists in Shati and Daraj Tuffah in the northern Gaza Strip”, a military statement said. “The terrorists operated inside school compounds that were used by Hamas as a shield for its terrorist activities.”
Hamas denies using civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals for military purposes. The group described the attacks on the two schools and the house in Shati camp as “massacres”.
Separately, the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups said in a joint statement their fighters had fired mortar bombs overnight against Israeli forces in the Yibna neighbourhood of eastern Rafah.
In the city of Khan Younis to Rafah’s north, medics said Israeli tank shelling killed seven Palestinians and wounded several other people at a tent camp in a western district.
Gaza health officials said at least 45 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli military strikes across the densely populated coastal enclave on June 25.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said chaos was taking hold in Gaza as smuggling bands form and add to the difficulties of delivering sorely needed aid.
A high risk of famine also persists across the Gaza Strip as the conflict rages on unabated and humanitarian access remains restricted, a global hunger monitor said on June 25.
Hezbollah conflict
More than eight months into the fighting, international mediation backed by the US has so far failed to bring a ceasefire agreement.
Hamas says any agreement must bring an end to the war, while Israel says it will agree only to temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 23 said the phase of intense fighting against Hamas would end “very soon”, freeing up more forces to send to the northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated.
Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi on June 25 said Israel would spend the coming weeks trying to resolve the conflict with Hezbollah and would prefer a diplomatic solution there.
Shelling has led to tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border fleeing.
Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli offensive in retaliation has killed 37,658 people, the Gaza health ministry said on June 25, and has left the tiny, densely populated Gaza Strip in ruins.
Since early May, fighting has focused on Rafah, abutting Egypt on Gaza’s southern edge, where around half of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been sheltering after fleeing other areas. Most have since had to flee again.
Gaza’s health ministry on June 25 said hospitals and medical centres in the enclave were experiencing a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies due to the Israeli offensive, Israel’s control and closure of all crossings and its targeting of Gaza’s health sector.
In particularly short supply are medicines needed for emergency, anaesthesia, intensive care and operations, the ministry said in a statement. REUTERS