Israeli strike in Gaza kills at least 7 people, including 4 kids
An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in central Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians, including four children, and wounded 16 other people on Friday afternoon, health officials said.
The strike hit an apartment in the Jaffa residential tower in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp. The dead and wounded were taken to Aqsa and Awda hospitals.
The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the strike. Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian casualties and the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Israel says it only strikes militants and blames the Hamas militant group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.
More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in 14 months of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, according to the health ministry in the territory. The tallies do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but officials have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Negotiators say Israel and Hamas are inching toward a cease-fire deal that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Killings, including a notorious massacre, in a Syrian suburb left residents wanting revenge. Then they heard a militia leader was going to be hanged.
In the occupied West Bank on Friday, Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque and vandalized property, the head of the Palestinian village council said, as Israeli police pledged to investigate.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence by Jewish settlers during the war in Gaza, and rights groups say the Israeli army often turns a blind eye.
Nasfat al-Khafash, the head of the council in Marda, in the northern West Bank, where the attack occurred, said a group of settlers arrived early in the morning, setting the mosque on fire and scrawling hateful messages on it.
Associated Press video showed spray-painted stars of David and the words in Hebrew, “the mosque will burn, the temple will be built,” an apparent reference to the ultranationalist desire to establish a Third Temple for Jews in Jerusalem at the holiest and most contested site in the Holy Land.
Religious Zionists, most believing in a divine right to govern, now have outsize influence in Israel. The war in the Gaza Strip is energizing their settlement push.
“These slogans reflect their upbringing and hatred towards Palestinians and Arabs,” said Al-Khafash, adding that the settlers received “full support” from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the furthest-right government in Israel’s history.
Israel’s police, military and Shin Bet internal security agency said they were investigating. “We view the incident seriously and will act with determination to bring those responsible to justice,” they said in a statement.
The U.N.’s humanitarian office said settler attacks on Palestinian farmers during this fall’s olive harvest season “at least tripled” in 2024 compared to each of the last three years.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 700,000 Jewish settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the territory live under Israeli military law.
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