Israel strikes in Gaza kill at least 30 Palestinians, one of the highest tolls since ceasefire began
At least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, hospital officials said, marking one of the highest death tolls since a ceasefire began in October.
The strikes, which came a day after Israel accused Hamas of new ceasefire violations, hit multiple locations throughout Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies told the Associated Press. An airstrike also hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 14 and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mahamed Abu Selmiya said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the strikes were in response to what it said was a violation of the ceasefire agreement by Hamas after the army killed at least four terrorists emerging from a tunnel in an Israel-controlled area of Rafah.
"The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip systematically violate international law, brutally exploiting civilian infrastructure and the Gazan population as human shields for terrorist activities," the IDF said, adding that it will continue to act against any violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren. Meanwhile, Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City apartment building strike killed three children, their aunt and grandmother on Saturday morning, while the strike on the police station killed at least 14 — officers, including four policewomen, civilians and inmates held at the station. The hospital also said a man was killed in a strike Saturday in the eastern side of Jabaliya refugee camp.
Hamas called Saturday's strikes "a renewed flagrant violation" and urged the United States and other mediating countries to push Israel to stop strikes.
Saturday's strikes are a reminder that the death toll in Gaza is still rising even as the ceasefire agreement inches forward.
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 Hamas-run Health Ministry had recorded at least 520 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on Oct. 10. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Saturday's strikes also 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 have been closed throughout almost the entire war. Palestinians see Rafah as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.
The crossing's opening, limited at first, marks the first major step in the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Reopening borders is among the challenging issues on the agenda for the phase now underway, which also includes demilitarizing the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.