Two Children Among Five Killed in Latest Gaza Strikes
Gazan authorities said at least five people were killed by Israeli fire on Monday, including two children, as violence continued despite an active ceasefire.
Two Palestinians were killed at dawn when a tent was bombed in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, according to the civil defense rescue service, which operates under Hamas authority. A 10-year-old girl was also killed by Israeli artillery fire north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to the civil defense and the city’s Nasser Hospital. The Israeli army told AFP it had no knowledge of either incident.
A four-year-old was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defense said, adding that an entire residential block was damaged and that a mother and her child were rescued from beneath the rubble of another home. In a separate strike in Khan Yunis, one person was killed and five others injured, according to the rescue service.
In Gaza City, a security source told AFP that Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at a water desalination plant in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, destroying it. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem condemned the strike, calling it a further attempt to deprive Gazans of essential means of survival.
Responding to an AFP inquiry, the Israeli army said it had not targeted the desalination plant, but rather a nearby Hamas weapons storage facility — one of two such sites it struck on Monday. The army said the facilities were established inside two mosques in Gaza and used by Hamas to conceal weapons, adding that advance warnings had been issued to residents to reduce harm to civilians. The second targeted facility was located in Deir Al-Balah.
An October ceasefire has reduced but not stopped violence in Gaza. According to Gaza’s health ministry, which also operates under Hamas authority and whose figures the United Nations considers reliable, Israeli operations have killed 1,288 people since the ceasefire took effect. The Israeli army has reported five deaths within its ranks over the same period, along with the death of one civilian contractor.
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