Israeli strikes kill 5 in Gaza, health says, as attacks escalate after ceasefire
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Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, as a US-based research group reported an increase in Israeli attacks to levels not seen since a peace deal began in October.
Doctors said an Israeli airstrike killed two people near Tuffah in the northern Enclave, while a third person was killed when Israeli tanks bombed the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City.
Another airstrike on a tent for displaced people in western Gaza City killed one person and injured several others, while a car attack in Khan Younis, in the south, killed another, medics said.
Witnesses also reported that airstrikes hit a building housing the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, causing damage to several nearby homes.
The Israeli military did not comment on the incident.
The deaths add to the number of more than 1,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, killed by Israeli airstrikes since the October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to health officials in Gaza. Hamas rarely discloses its losses.
“All the people of Gaza have not lived for one day or one minute of the cessation of hostilities. This ceasefire is an illusion,” Jibril Khattab, a relative of one of the dead, told Reuters at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital.
“There is no safe place in all of Gaza,” he added.
Attacks on the rise since October
The truce has stopped major fighting, but has failed to stop near-daily Israeli strikes. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza at the same time.
Conflict monitor ACLED, which tracks Israel’s offensive in Gaza, said airstrikes by Hamas and other militants rose to more than 40 in June, the highest number for a month since the ceasefire.
“The share of Israeli and drone strikes targeting the military increased from about 36 percent in June to about 40 percent in the first 10 days of July, indicating an increased focus on terrorist targets,” said ACLED Middle East research assistant director Nasser Khdour.
“Meanwhile, other airstrikes and airstrikes continued to attack people in areas near the Yellow Line, killing and injuring civilians, including women and children.”
Nine months after a ceasefire ended Israel’s heaviest offensive, large parts of Gaza are in crisis. Nationally, CBC’s Chris Brown reveals how the collapse of the water grid, severe food shortages, and ongoing military occupation have left the frozen landscape in what is described as ‘humanitarian purgatory.’
Israel says its strikes are aimed at deterring Gaza’s military offensive.
“As polls show the opposition is leading, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing domestic pressure to take a strong security position against Hamas,” Khdour said, referring to Israel’s October elections.
Almost all of Gaza’s two million people now live in a small area along the coast, mostly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.
Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people when they attacked Israel crossing the border on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the subsequent Israeli offensive killed more than 73,000 Palestinians.
