Over 24 Palestinians were killed in three separate airstrikes launched by Israeli forces on the Gaza City early on Tuesday.
According to the media reports, one of the deceased was Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s sister. The Israeli air offensive also targeted two schools in the Gaza city that were sheltering internally displaced people. This claimed the lives of at least 14 people.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes were aimed at terrorists operating inside two structures and that the targets were terrorists involved in holding hostages.
IDF released a statement saying that the aerial surveillance checks, precise munitions, and additional intelligence measures were all used in order to mitigate harm to civilians. Israel also bombarded a house in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp killing 10 people.
The house reportedly belonged to the Hamas leader’s extended family. ‘They were 10 individuals, three of them were scattered outside the house and seven under the rubble – with no prior warning, with people around them, and there are injuries among the neighbours’, said Hassan Kaskin, a neighbour.
This comes two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a TV interview said that the intense phase of the Gaza war was winding down. He stressed that the war would continue until the Hamas group no longer controlled the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In his first TV interview since Hamas’ Oct 7 assault, Netanyahu on Sunday stated that once the intense phase comes to an end, the Israeli forces would be deployed along the northern border with Lebanon, where the fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has intensified.
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