CAIRO, July 18 (Alliance News): At least 12 Palestinians were killed, including eight mourners attending a funeral, in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to Gaza health officials, as violence continued despite an October ceasefire.
Medical officials said an Israeli airstrike struck a funeral gathering in Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring around 20 others. The funeral was being held for a Palestinian who had reportedly been killed in an earlier Israeli strike on the same area.
Separate Israeli airstrikes elsewhere in the enclave killed at least three more Palestinians, bringing Friday’s death toll to at least 12, according to medics.
Hamas condemned the strike on the funeral gathering, describing it as a “brutal massacre” against mourners, and called on international mediators and the United Nations to intervene to stop Israeli military operations in Gaza.
Responding to the incident, the Israeli military said it had targeted a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad group, which operates alongside Hamas in parts of the Gaza Strip.
The military acknowledged reports that civilians may have been harmed during the operation, saying it was aware of claims that “several uninvolved individuals” were affected by the strike.
Meanwhile, residents in areas east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza reported that Israeli drones broadcast evacuation messages, ordering civilians to leave their homes. The warnings prompted several families to flee in search of safer locations.
According to Gaza health officials, more than 1,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire came into effect in October. Israeli authorities say the operations target militant groups despite the truce.
The conflict has also claimed the lives of four Israeli soldiers during the same period.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a US-based conflict monitoring organization, reported that Israeli airstrikes against Hamas and other armed groups exceeded 40 in June, marking the highest monthly number of strikes since the ceasefire began.
The organization said additional attacks occurred near buffer zones separating Israeli and Palestinian-controlled areas, resulting in civilian casualties, including women and children.
The latest escalation comes against the backdrop of the war that began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and approximately 250 hostages were taken, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains severe, with nearly all of the territory’s estimated two million residents displaced and living in overcrowded tents or damaged buildings amid continued shortages of food, medical supplies and essential services.
