5 children among 18 dead as Israel launches fresh attacks on Gaza

Israel launched fresh attacks in Gaza, targeting central and northern parts of the Strip, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. They said at least 18 people, including five children and two women, were killed in the Israeli bombardment.

Israeli strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.

News agency AP reported that its journalist saw the bodies at the morgue. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

This comes a day after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli forces have killed the successor to the head of Hezbollah, while the militant group’s acting leader promised more fighting in southern Lebanon.

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Israel has been bombing Gaza Strip for the past one year after Hamas-led militants blew holes in its security fence, stormed into army bases and farming communities. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas raids on October 7 last year. The Hamas militants abducted another 250 people.

The Palestinian armed group is still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Over the past year, the conflict has spread to other parts of West Asia. Israel is currently at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023.

The war has also brought Israel and Iran closer to a military conflict. Iran has launched two missile attacks on Israel, which is widely believed to have carried out targeted killings inside Iran — including that of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

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In the latest instance, an Israeli strike hit a family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least nine people, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run government.  The dead were taken to the Al-Ahly Hospital, which said two women and two children were among those killed.

Footage shared by the Civil Defense showed first responders recovering dead bodies and body parts from under the rubble. Israel launched an air and ground operation earlier this week in Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has carried out several previous operations in Jabaliya, and its forces have repeatedly returned to other areas of Gaza after militants have regrouped.

(With agency inputs)