Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 10 people, including three children and their parents, according to the territory’s civil defence agency and hospitals.
The bloodshed has continued despite a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, while negotiations aimed at turning the truce into a lasting agreement to end the war remain stalled.
The family of five was killed when an Israeli strike struck a residential apartment in northwest Gaza City, the civil defence agency said. The rescue service operates under Hamas authority.
“One child is the family’s only survivor because they were not inside the home when the strike happened,” agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army conducted a strike in Gaza City on Saturday “targeting a Hamas terrorist”.
She added that the military was continuing to assess the outcome.
Mousa Al-Aimawi, a Gaza resident, said there had been no warning before the attack.
“All of a sudden, a missile struck the building. Nobody knew — there was no warning, nothing,” he told AFP. “They attacked without regard for the civilians, the children, the women and the girls inside.”
Mohammed Kali, who lives in the building, described seeing several people sprawled on the ground.
“Bodies were scattered everywhere — dead women and children, as well as elderly people,” he said. AFP footage showed extensive sections of the building’s facade ripped away as rescue workers assisted those who had been wounded.
Amid shattered blocks of concrete and mangled metal, residents searched through the wreckage for possessions that might still be recovered.
Elsewhere in Gaza City, three people were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, the civil defence agency said.
Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of all three victims.
Health officials reported that two more people were killed in separate Israeli attacks elsewhere in Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on those strikes.
The deaths underscore the violence that has continued despite the ceasefire.
Even before Friday’s casualties, at least 1,144 Palestinians had been killed since the truce took effect last October, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.
Over the same period, the Israeli military says five of its soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Gaza.
Media restrictions and limited access to Gaza make it impossible for AFP to independently verify casualty figures or report freely on the violence inside the territory.
Palestinian teen footballer dies after Israeli settler shooting
A 17-year-old Palestinian footballer has died from injuries sustained a week earlier during an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, officials and family members said.
Clad in black, dozens of mourners carried the body of Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan from the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah to his home village for burial. Nassan played for Al-Mughayyir Club and was a member of the Palestinian national youth team.
The Palestine Football Association said Israeli forces shot Nassan as settlers attacked the village on 11 July.
The teenager was reportedly struck in the thigh. Doctors amputated his leg, but he later succumbed to his injuries, according to the association.
The Israeli military did not immediately answer a request for comment.
“Football was his passion,” his father, Hamdallah Al-Nassan, said.
“He heard girls and women screaming when the settlers attacked,” his father said. “He rushed to the site of the assault, and he was killed.”
Dozens of mourners carried the body of Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan to his village for burial
Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported the circumstances in which Nasser was wounded and the subsequent amputation of his leg. It said Israeli forces fired rubber bullets that struck two other residents, while a 10-year-old boy was hit in the head by a stun grenade.
The United Nations has documented a sharp rise in violence attributed to Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
At least 1,088 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October 2023, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian health ministry figures.
Official Israeli data shows at least 46 Israelis, among them soldiers and civilians, have died in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.
Israeli rule change clears way for using crocodiles to deter prison breaks
Israel has opened the door to using crocodiles for security purposes — including as a barrier against prison escapes — after Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman reclassified the reptiles from wild animals to “captive-bred wildlife”.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomed the change. He reportedly proposed in December that crocodiles be placed around a prison holding Palestinian detainees, echoing Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility.
“Considering an escape attempt? You may want to reconsider,” Mr Gvir wrote on Facebook on Thursday, posting an AI-generated image depicting him holding a crocodile on a leash.
Israel’s security minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaking to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The accompanying caption declared: “Ministers Ben Gvir and Silman are joining forces to surround prisons with crocodiles!”
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority objected to Ben Gvir’s proposal when he initially raised it last year.
Under the reclassification, responsibility for the animals shifts from the authority to a “security body”. That category includes the Israel Prison Service, which falls under Ben Gvir’s control.
The regulation, signed into law on Wednesday, allows Nile crocodiles to be bred as long as “they are held by a security body… under conditions determined by the Director (of the Nature and Parks Authority) to prevent their release into the wild, and subject to the Minister of Environmental Protection determining that their possession is required for security purposes”.
Israeli media said Mr Gvir plans to position the crocodiles around Ketziot prison in southern Israel.
According to Channel 13, several Israel Prison Service officers initially “responded with ridicule” when Mr Gvir presented the idea last year.
