The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement: “During the Israeli escalation this evening, 25 martyrs and more than 77 wounded, including critical cases, arrived at Gaza Strip hospitals.” The ministry did not provide further details about the locations of the attacks or the identities of the victims.
But Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a statement that the Israeli occupation army had begun launching a series of raids since this afternoon, targeting several areas in the sector.
A Civil Defense spokesman explained that the raids began with tank shells being fired at the home of the Balbal family in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, which led to the death of the young man, Mo'men Balbal (22 years old).
In the same neighborhood, an Israeli airstrike targeted a gathering of civilians, resulting in the death of one Palestinian and injuries to dozens of others, according to Basal.
In the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, a Civil Defense spokesman said that Israeli warplanes bombed a building belonging to the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Gaza, resulting in the death of 5 Palestinians, including a woman and a child.
In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Basal revealed that three Palestinians were killed and others were injured as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted a group of citizens "inside the UNRWA club" west of the city.
This coincided with a bombing carried out by "quadcopter" drones, which dropped bombs on Palestinians in the vicinity of the Arab National Hospital in the center of Gaza City, according to Basal, who called on the international community to intervene.
All previous raids targeted areas from which the occupation army withdrew west of the "yellow line," in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed by Hamas with Israel and which came into effect on October 10th.
According to the agreement, the “yellow line” separates the areas where the occupation army is deployed, estimated at more than 50% of the area of the sector to the east, and the areas where Palestinians are allowed to move to the west.
For its part, Israel acknowledged violating the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and launched raids on "Hamas-controlled areas," claiming that gunfire had targeted its forces in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army radio said that the air force launched a raid on the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, following what it said was gunfire from Palestinian snipers towards an Israeli force in Rafah, "without injuries."
In a related context, the Hebrew website "Walla" reported that Israeli aircraft bombed a building in Gaza City, and quoted an Israeli security source as saying that the raid targeted "a senior leader in the military wing of Hamas," without providing any further details.
The official Hebrew Broadcasting Authority, quoting a security source, reported that the Israeli occupation army "attacked the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion and the commander of the naval system in Hamas in Gaza City," adding that "the attack came based on accurate intelligence information."
For its part, Channel 12, a private television station, also quoted a security source as saying: "We assess with a high degree of probability that the targets of the attack in Gaza have been eliminated."
Previous government, factional and human rights data indicate that Israel has committed dozens of violations of the ceasefire agreement that has been in effect since October 10 .
According to the data, the Israeli violations include shelling and shooting at civilians while they are in areas located west of what is known as the "yellow line," while Israel admits to shooting at them on the pretext that they crossed the line.
Among its violations, Israel has killed 280 Palestinians and injured 672 others since October 11 , according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli war of extermination in Gaza began on October 8, 2023, and stopped two years later under a ceasefire agreement, after leaving more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at about $70 billion.
