عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Air Strike Kills 10, Including 7 Children

Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
TT
20
TT

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Air Strike Kills 10, Including 7 Children

Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

Gaza's civil defense agency said a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on Friday killed 10 members of the same family, including seven children, in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack, adding in a separate statement that it had struck approximately 40 "terror targets" across Gaza over the past day, AFP reported.

Israel resumed intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.

"Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis," agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Medics and rescuers transported the dead and injured to hospital in multiple ambulances, with several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, AFP footage of the aftermath showed.

Footage of the house showed a heavily destroyed structure, with mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal strewn across the site.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in Khan Yunis.

The civil defense agency also reported two people killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

Early on Friday, the Israeli military issued an "urgent and serious" evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City.

The Israeli army “is operating with great force in your areas to destroy terrorist infrastructure. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City," Avichay Adraee, the military's Arabic-language spokesman, said on X.

"Overnight, the troops deepened ground activity in the Morag Corridor, while continuing operational activity in the area," a military statement said, referring to a new buffer zone between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Thursday that at least 1,522 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,886.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

UN Humanitarian Chief Slams Aid Plan for Gaza Proposed by Israel, Backed by US 

A Palestinian boy has a bite from a ration of hot food from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on May 12, 2025.(AFP)
A Palestinian boy has a bite from a ration of hot food from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on May 12, 2025.(AFP)
TT
20
TT

UN Humanitarian Chief Slams Aid Plan for Gaza Proposed by Israel, Backed by US 

A Palestinian boy has a bite from a ration of hot food from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on May 12, 2025.(AFP)
A Palestinian boy has a bite from a ration of hot food from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on May 12, 2025.(AFP)

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday criticized an Israel-initiated and US-backed humanitarian aid distribution plan for Gaza as a "fig leaf for further violence and displacement" of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave.

"It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction," Fletcher told the UN Security Council.

No humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation, a quarter of the enclave's population.

Israel proposed last week that private companies would take over handing out aid in Gaza's south once an expanded Israeli offensive starts in its war there, which began in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel. Aid deliveries have been handled by international aid groups and UN organizations.

"We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians," said Fletcher.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and is blocking deliveries until Hamas releases all remaining hostages.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, currently on an official visit to Japan, said on Wednesday that Israel endorsed what he called "the American humanitarian plan" under which aid would be provided by a private fund.

"It will go directly to the people. Hamas must not be allowed to get their hands on it," Saar said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has rejected Israel's proposal, saying in April it risked "further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour."

The UN says any aid distribution must be independent, impartial and neutral, in line with humanitarian principles.

Fletcher said the UN has met more than a dozen times with Israeli authorities about their proposed aid distribution model to find a solution but without success. Minimum conditions include the ability to deliver aid to all those in need wherever they are in Gaza, he said.

Amid the stalemate, the United States last week backed a mechanism for Gaza aid deliveries to be handled by private companies, an approach that appeared to resemble Israel's proposal, but gave few initial details about the plan.

"We will not allow the old, broken system to remain in place," Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the council. "We appreciate the efforts to build a new mechanism, one grounded in accountability."

US WORKING WITH ISRAEL

Senior US officials were working with Israel to enable a newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to "provide a secure mechanism capable of delivering aid directly to those in need, without Hamas stealing, looting or leveraging this assistance for its own ends", acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council on Tuesday.

She urged the UN and aid groups to cooperate, saying the foundation would deliver aid consistent with humanitarian principles and would "ensure its own security so that commodities reach civilians in need".

"While some humanitarian organizations may ultimately choose not to engage in these conversations, others have chosen a more constructive path, and they will be able to deliver aid in an appropriate way, hopefully very soon," Shea said.

Fletcher said the Israeli-designed distribution model was not the answer. This was in part because Israel said it would limit aid distribution to south Gaza during its planned offensive and people would have to relocate to access aid there.

"It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm," Fletcher told the council. "It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip."

Most of the 15-member Security Council expressed concern about the proposed aid distribution plans.

"We cannot support any model that places political or military objectives above the needs of civilians. Or that undermines the UN and other partners' ability to operate independently," Britain, France, Slovenia, Greece and Denmark said in a joint statement before the council meeting.

The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 52,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.