Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike on Friday (19/4) night 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,” said Gaza Civil Defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal in a statement, Saturday (20/4).
Outside the hospital, a journalist AFP saw people mourning over small body bags. A woman strokes the forehead of a dead boy as planes rumble overhead.
“As you can see, there are no militants, not even adult men, except the head of the family. They are all women and children.” Said Abu Mohammed Ziyadah, the victim’s neighbor.
Soon following the conflict in Gaza broke out on October 7, Israel told Palestinians living north of Gaza to move to “safe zones” in the south of the territory such as Rafah.
Also read: The US has not approved Israel’s plan to invade Rafah
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to attack the city, where some 1.5 million people – more than half the region’s population – have sought refuge.
Israel has been threatening for two months to send troops to fight Hamas militants, but without such an operation Rafah continues to be bombarded.
Bassal said Israeli soldiers attacked several areas in Rafah overnight, including the Salam neighborhood where one person was killed and several others injured. He said soldiers attacked a house and a kindergarten. (AFP/M-3)
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