THE Gaza Strip’s civil defense agency said on Saturday (20/4) that an Israeli attack overnight killed nine members of a Palestinian family. including six children, in the southern city of Rafah. Five children aged one to seven years and a 16-year-old girl were among the dead along with two women and a man, according to the city’s Al-Najjar hospital.
“Nine martyrs including six children were rescued from the rubble following the Israeli air force attacked the Radwan family’s house in Tal al-Sultan in Rafah,” Gaza Strip Civil Defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Outside the hospital, an AFP journalist saw people mourning over small body bags. A woman strokes the forehead of a dead boy as planes rumble overhead.
“People are sleeping peacefully,” said neighbor Abu Mohammed Ziyadah. “As you can see, there are no militants, not even adult men, except the head of the family. They are all women and children.”
Soon following the war in Gaza began on October 7, Israel told Palestinians living north of Gaza to move to safe zones in the south of the territory such as Rafah.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to attack the city. It’s where some 1.5 million people–more than half the region’s population–have taken refuge.
Israel has for two months threatened to send troops to fight Hamas militants. Even without such operations, Rafah continues to be bombarded by Israel.
Bassal said Israeli soldiers attacked several areas in Rafah overnight, including the Salam neighborhood when one person was killed and several others were injured. He said soldiers attacked a house and a kindergarten. “It was a very difficult night in Rafah,” he said. (AFP/Z-2)
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