GAZA CITY: Gaza health officials reported that Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 11 people, including four members of the same family, in the latest violence to rock the Palestinian territory despite a ceasefire. Israel and Hamas trade near-daily accusations of truce violations, and the Gaza Strip remains gripped by bloodshed as progress on permanently ending the war remains stalled.
Deadly Airstrike on Sabra Neighborhood
An overnight Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City killed four members of the Al-Safadi family, including the husband, wife, and their two daughters, according to the civil defense agency, a rescue service that operates under Hamas authority. It said the strike also injured 12 others. Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of four members of the Safadi family, including two children.
"Around 2 o'clock, my cousins were asleep when a missile struck them. They have no connection to Hamas, nor are they involved in anything. They're just innocent children," said Nael al-Safadi, a relative. AFP footage from the scene showed an exterior wall of the apartment blown off, exposing rubble, clothes, mattresses, and other household belongings strewn across the shattered interior.
Survivor's Account
"By God, I still feel as though I'm in a dream -- I never expected this to happen to us," Mohammad al-Safadi, who survived the strike, told AFP. "I'm a civilian. I swear to God I've never carried a weapon or fired one. What do you want from me? Go after whoever you're after, what's my fault in this?"
Additional Attacks and Casualties
Al-Shifa hospital, meanwhile, said it had received one body following a separate Israeli drone strike near an intersection in the north of Gaza City. Later on Saturday, six more people were killed in separate Israeli attacks, including three when an Israeli aircraft targeted a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defense agency reported.
