Israeli strike kills girl, woman in Gaza Strip: medics
Palestinian health officials said that two people, including a 6-year-old girl, died and 17 people, including children, were injured in Israel’s air strike on a tent in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Health officials said that six-year-old Mennatallah Abu Libda and 31-year-old Hanan Mahmoud died in Israel’s air strike on the tent camp where displaced families lived in the Mawasi region of Khan Younis in the south of the region.
Eyewitnesses said that the attack was carried out by two helicopters.
The Israeli military told Reuters it had shot militants in the area but did not provide further information.
Relatives of the victims came to the hospital to say goodbye.
Men and women, relatives of the dead girl, cried next to her white shrouded body.
Soheir Abu Libda, the dead girl’s grandmother, said: “This little girl, a little bird from the birds of paradise, was playing at the door of her house.”
An October ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump failed to stop Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip; Israel and Hamas are deadlocked in indirect talks to implement the second phase of the agreement, which includes the disarmament of the militant group and the withdrawal of the Israeli army.
The ceasefire left Israel controlling more than half of the territory; Hamas, on the other hand, controlled part of the region along the coast.
Nearly 900 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire came into force, according to figures from Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The country’s military said four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants during the same period.
During the funeral, Kadir Abu Libda, a relative of the dead girl, said: “There is no ceasefire, there is nothing. All of this is deceiving people, nothing more, nothing less.”
Later Monday, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had killed Mohammed Abu Mallouh, a senior armed Hamas militant, in an airstrike on Sunday, adding that he was a key member of the group’s arms production department.
It was stated that Abu Mallouh helped produce weapons that pose a threat to Israeli forces operating in the region and beyond, including civilians inside Israel.
There was no comment from Hamas regarding the Israeli army’s statement.
On Sunday, Palestinian health officials said Abu Mallouh, his wife and their six-month-old child were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in the Nuseyrat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Hamas does not release figures on casualties among its fighters.
Israel says its post-ceasefire offensives are aimed at preventing attacks or preventing people from approaching the ceasefire line with Hamas.
