Eleven killed after Israel hits bus in Gaza, Hamas-run civil defence says

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said that 11 people, all from the same family, were killed when the bus they were on was hit by an Israeli tank shell in northern Gaza.

It was stated that the Abu Shaban family was trying to inspect their house when the incident occurred in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday night.

It is the deadliest incident involving Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the ceasefire began eight days ago.

The Israeli army said soldiers opened fire on a “suspicious vehicle” that crossed the so-called yellow line in Gaza, which borders the area still occupied by Israeli forces.

Israeli troops continue to operate in more than half of the Gaza Strip under the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP news agency that the victims were members of the Abu Shaaban family and were killed “while trying to control their homes” in the area.

According to civil defense, women and children were among the dead.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that “a suspicious vehicle was detected crossing the yellow line and approaching IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip,” prompting it to fire “warning shots” at the vehicle.

It was stated that the vehicle “continued to approach the troops in a way that posed an imminent threat” and “the soldiers opened fire to eliminate the threat in accordance with the agreement.”

Hamas said the family was targeted without justification.

The IDF warned Palestinians not to enter areas of Gaza still under its control.

Due to limited internet access, many Palestinians do not know the location of Israeli troops as the yellow border line is not physically marked and it is not clear whether the area the bus is traveling in crosses this line.

The BBC requested the coordinates of the incident from the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the military will put up visual signs indicating the location of the line.

Separately, Hamas on Friday released the body of Israeli hostage Eliyahu Margalit to the Red Cross, which returned him to Israel.

Mr. Margalit was the tenth hostage returned from Gaza to die. The bodies of the other 18 people have not yet been sent back to their countries.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Palestinians to authorities in Gaza through the Red Cross, bringing the total number of bodies to 135.

Hamas’ failure to return the bodies of all dead hostages in accordance with last week’s ceasefire agreement sparked outrage in Israel; but the United States downplayed the suggestion that this amounted to a violation.

The IDF stressed that Hamas must “comply with the agreement and take the necessary steps for the return of all hostages.”

Hamas has accused Israel of making the mission difficult because Israeli attacks have reduced many buildings to rubble and are not allowing heavy machinery and diggers in Gaza to search for the bodies of hostages.

As part of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and 1,718 detainees in Gaza.

Hamas also returned all 20 living hostages to Israel.

The Israeli military launched an operation in Gaza in response to an October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel in which Hamas-led gunmen killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

At least 67,900 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the region’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.