An Israeli air attack on a residential apartment in western Gaza City has killed at least five people and severely wounded several others, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency and staff at al-Shifa Hospital.
A total of eight Palestinians died across the Strip on Saturday, hospital sources told Al Jazeera, including one killed in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and two who succumbed to wounds sustained in earlier Israeli attacks.
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The Gaza City strike hit the al-Asala building in the Remal neighbourhood while residents were asleep in the early hours of Saturday. It came without prior warning, said Al Jazeera’s Hani al-Shaer, reporting from Gaza.
Remal is one of Gaza City’s most crowded residential areas, home to thousands of displaced people sheltering in makeshift camps.
“We heard fighter jets getting louder, then three strikes followed, hitting the apartment and killing those inside,” Al-Shaer said.
The attack penetrated the targeted apartment and tore through the floors below, causing further destruction throughout the multistorey building.
‘Terrifying night’
Reporting from Gaza City later on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary described yet “another terrifying night”.
“Around 2am [on Saturday, 11:00 GMT on Friday], two huge explosions shook the al-Haid roundabout. We later learned that the Israeli army targeted a building with two explosive drones, killing at least three women, a child and a young man”.
Fires burned for at least an hour before Palestinian Civil Defence crews managed to put them out.
Al-Shaer described the scene as “horrific”, while Khoudary said “the whole neighbourhood was shaken”, as people were buried under the rubble as they slept.
Civil defence crews were still searching the site for missing people and bodies, al-Shaer said, as Israeli drones continued flying over the area and fighter jets were heard flying low across the Strip.
Christian mother and daughter killed
Among those killed were two Christian women, Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud (Ayyad) and her daughter Mary Hafez Michel al-Najjar (Abu Daoud), the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, citing a statement from the head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Ramzi Khoury.
Friends and relatives gathered for their funeral at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City on Saturday.
“Today is essentially the worst day of my life. I lost my mother and my grandmother today,” said Fouad Al-Najjar.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed his “deep sorrow and grief” over their “tragic” killing.
He also extended “his heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased and to the Christian community in Gaza”.
In a statement later on Saturday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem mourned the women and extended condolences to their family.
“We pray for an end to the war and bombardment, for the protection of civilian lives, and for a just peace in which the people of Gaza can feel secure for their children and loved ones. May their memory be eternal,” the Patriarchate said.
‘Very hard to save lives’
“This is not the first ceasefire violation, or the first attack, in the past 24 hours,” Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said, as an Israeli drone strike killed a Palestinian man and wounded several others in southern Gaza on Thursday.
“According to doctors, it is very, very hard to save the lives of those who are injured, because Israel continues to restrict medical supplies and instruments,” Khoudary said. “A lot of people are queueing to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.”
Bordering Egypt in the south of Gaza, the Rafah crossing is only opened by Israeli forces for limited movements of people, especially patients needing medical treatment abroad, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Repeated delays in bringing life-saving medicines, prosthetics and other supplies from Israel into Gaza are having “devastating consequences” for Palestinians who urgently need them, the WHO said on Saturday.
Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, at least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and 175,000 injured, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The true toll is likely much higher, as many people are still missing beneath the rubble.
Since last year’s “ceasefire”, at least 1,400 people have been killed and nearly 5,000 injured.
