Children and police officers among at least 30 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Original article by William Christou and agencies

Israel has carried out some of its deadliest airstrikes on Gaza in months, killing at least 30 Palestinians, some of whom were sheltering in tent cities for displaced people.

Despite a nominal ceasefire, the Israeli military struck a police station in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood west of Gaza City on Saturday, killing 10 officers and detainees, the civil defence said. It indicated the death toll could rise as emergency responders searched for bodies.

Another strike hit an apartment in Gaza City, killing three children and two women, while seven more people were killed when Israel bombed tents in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

“We found my three little nieces in the street. They say ‘ceasefire’ and all. What did those children do? What did we do?” Samer al-Atbash, an uncle of the three children killed in Gaza City, told Reuters.

The Israeli military said the attacks were carried out in response to an incident on Friday when eight armed men came out of a tunnel in Rafah, southern Gaza. The area is still under Israeli military control under the terms of the October ceasefire.

The strikes occurred the day before a border crossing is expected to open in Gaza’s southernmost city, a reminder that the death toll is still rising even as the ceasefire agreement inches forward.

All of the territory’s border crossings have been closed since the start of the war, and Palestinians see the Rafah crossing with Egypt as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory because most of its medical infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

Israel wants to ensure that more Palestinians leave Gaza than enter it, according to Reuters, which said Israel was aiming to allow only 150 Palestinians into Gaza through Rafah each day.

Shifa hospital said the strike on Gaza City killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives on Saturday morning, while Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said a strike on a tent camp caused a fire, killing a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

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Gaza’s health ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians deaths by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October.

Despite Israel’s frequent killing of Palestinians in violation of the ceasefire, the deal has moved to a crucial second phase. Some of the thorniest issues are contained in this phase, which requires Hamas to disarm and hand over power to a Board of Peace organisation staffed by appointees of the US president, Donald Trump.

A recent presentation in Davos by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also involved in Trump’s Gaza project, showed the Trump administration’s plan for “developing Gaza”, complete with futuristic skyscrapers overlooking the Mediterranean.

Most of Gaza has been levelled and basic infrastructure remains inoperable as a result of Israeli bombing over the past two years, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. Last year, a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel had committed a genocide in Gaza.