Eight killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City neighborhoods
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that strikes hit al-Nasr and al-Zeitoun as Israel expands attacks beyond a ceasefire line.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
Israeli attacks on two residential areas of Gaza City killed at least eight Palestinians on Saturday, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. The strikes add to a growing toll during a US-brokered ceasefire that Gaza health officials say has not stopped near-daily Israeli attacks.
Medical sources at Al Shifa hospital complex told Al Jazeera that two missiles hit a second-floor apartment in al-Nasr, killing five people. Witnesses told Al Jazeera the building was destroyed and a neighboring block was damaged.
The area was crowded with residents and pedestrians, and several people nearby were wounded, medical sources told the network. Rescue crews were still looking for people under the rubble, the sources said, warning that the number of dead could increase.
Earlier Saturday, artillery fire killed three people in al-Zeitoun, another neighborhood in Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera. They said similar strikes had recently hit Tel al-Hawa, a nearby district.
Israel confirmed that it had carried out strikes across Gaza, the Associated Press reported. Al Jazeera said the attacks came as Israel widened the areas it is hitting in Gaza, extending beyond the so-called Yellow Line that its forces were expected to hold under the fragile ceasefire arrangement.
Ceasefire under strain
Israel and Hamas agreed in October to a US-brokered ceasefire that formed part of a wider plan advanced by President Donald Trump to end the war and begin reconstruction, according to Al Jazeera. Since then, Israel has continued strikes that Gaza’s Health Ministry says have killed at least 1,127 Palestinians, including at least 260 children.
The ministry said five Israeli soldiers have been killed in the same period, according to Al Jazeera. Since the war began in October 2023, at least 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, the network reported, citing Gaza figures.
Israeli media reported earlier this week that the military now controls close to 70 percent of Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. That figure would put Israeli forces well beyond the roughly half of the territory they were expected to hold under the ceasefire agreement, the network reported.
Reporting from Gaza, Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud said the expansion was breaking the territory into smaller, disconnected areas and making movement harder for Palestinians. He said the process was contributing to the erasure of urban life and the loss of livelihoods for residents.
Images from Gaza City on Saturday showed residents inspecting damage after an Israeli air raid, according to an Associated Press photo caption carried by Al Jazeera. The reported strikes in al-Nasr and al-Zeitoun hit residential districts in a city where many civilians remain exposed to fire despite the ceasefire framework.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.