Israeli air strikes killed 32 people including children in Gaza , according to the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency.
Despite a US-brokered truce entering its second phase earlier this month, violence in the Palestinian territory has continued, with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the agreement.
The latest bloodshed comes after Israel announced it would reopen the crucial Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday (today) for the “limited movement of people”.
“The death toll since dawn today has risen to 32, most of them children and women,” said the civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under the Hamas authority, updating an earlier toll of 28.
“Residential apartments, tents, shelters and a police station were targeted, resulting in this humanitarian catastrophe,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in the statement.
A unit in an apartment building of Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood was left entirely destroyed, and blood spatters from its occupants were visible on the street below, an AFP journalist reported.
“Three girls died while they were sleeping. We found their bodies in the street”, Samer al-Atbash, a relative of the family, told AFP.
“What truce are you talking about? Everyone is deceiving everyone else,” added Nael al-Atbash, another relative.
One strike hit the police station in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre.
Gaza’s general police directorate said seven people were killed in that attack, while Bassal said the dead included four women police officers. “The killed included police officers and personnel as well as civilians who were present at the station at the time,” the directorate said.
