DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in Gaza on Saturday killed at least six people, including two children and a cameraman with broadcaster Al Jazeera, according to Palestinian health officials.
Despite an October ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas, the enclave has seen near-daily Israeli attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The first strike Saturday hit an apartment in Gaza City around 2 a.m., according to the ministry. At the site, an Associated Press reporter saw rubble and chunks of concrete stained with blood.
The bodies of two sisters, 4-year-old Zina and 14-year-old Lana Safadi, were sent to Al-Shifa Hospital’s morgue, where they lay in white hospital bags surrounded by family members.
“I was sitting at home. The rocket fell on us without a warning,” said their cousin, Mohammad Safadi, whose forehead was wounded. He said his wife was also hurt.
“This ceasefire [that] the occupation and the negotiation team speak of … is this really a ceasefire? We are civilians. I never held a weapon,” Safadi said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
On Saturday evening, three Israeli strikes killed four people and wounded at least a dozen others.
The first hit a house in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp without warning and killed three people, including Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah, according to Al Aqsa Hospital. Al Jazeera confirmed Wishah’s death.
Wishah’s brother Mohamed, who was a correspondent for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike in April.
Another strike Saturday targeted a group of people in the sprawling tent camp of Muwasi in southern Gaza, killing one and wounding eight others, according to Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
A third strike in Gaza City targeted a group of people and wounded at least four, according to Al-Shifa Hospital.
The Israeli military in a statement said it killed the Al Jazeera cameraman in a “precise strike.” It asserted that Wishah had been part of Hamas’ military wing and had posed a threat to troops in the area.
In a statement published Saturday on Al Jazeera’s website, Al Jazeera Media Network said it “condemns the deliberate killing” of Wishah, noting that he is the 12th Al Jazeera media worker to be killed in Gaza since the war started in October 2023.
It rejected as “baseless” Israel’s claim that the photographer was a Hamas member, saying that the Israeli military has “relentlessly spread false allegations” against its staffers to “justify its crimes against Al Jazeera journalists and cameramen in Gaza.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 263 Palestinian journalists have been killed during the war in Gaza.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 73,018 Palestinians, including those slain since the ceasefire, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records that are generally considered reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up about half of all fatalities.
Shurafa writes for the Associated Press.
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