EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Mourners attend a funeral, of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 12 members of the same family, including seven children, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence rescue agency.
In a video shared on the agency’s Telegram channel on Friday evening, rescue workers were seen pulling victims from the rubble of the Khallah family home in Jabalia.
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“All of the martyrs are from the same family, including seven children, the oldest aged six,” said Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the civil defence, speaking to AFP.
Basal also reported that 15 others were injured in the attack.
The Israeli army told AFP it had struck “several terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area”.
“According to an initial examination, the reported number of casualties resulting from the strike does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty”. “Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he said. “I want to say it because it touches my heart.”
Israel intensified its strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, marking over 14 months of ongoing military operations in the territory.
A drone strike targeted a residential building on the main market street of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least eight people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
In Beit Hanoun, an air raid claimed the lives of four individuals, including two young girls and their parents, Al Jazeera correspondents reported.
Meanwhile, rescue teams retrieved the bodies of three brothers from the rubble of a bombed home near Kamal Adwan Hospital. The escalating violence continues to inflict devastating losses on families across Gaza.
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