GAZA CITY – At least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air and ground strikes on Friday in northern and southern Gaza, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency. The attacks come amid continued violence in the war-torn territory, with both civilian casualties and international concern on the rise.
Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir reported that 10 people lost their lives in two separate Israeli airstrikes near the southern city of Khan Yunis. One strike targeted a residential home, while the other hit tents sheltering displaced individuals. In northern Gaza, four people were reportedly killed in an airstrike in Jabalia al-Nazla.
Due to media restrictions and limited access to the affected zones, independent verification of the death tolls and incident details remains challenging. The Israeli military has not issued an official response but requested coordinates to investigate further when contacted by AFP.
These latest strikes follow Israel’s admission of a “stray” artillery round that mistakenly hit Gaza’s only Catholic church on Thursday, killing three people and drawing international condemnation. A day earlier, a crowd crush at a humanitarian aid center in southern Gaza claimed the lives of at least 20 people.
Meanwhile, indirect talks between Israel and Hamas resumed in Doha on July 6, aiming to establish a 60-day ceasefire. The conflict, now in its 21st month, began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,219 people in Israel. Since then, Israeli military operations have reportedly killed over 58,667 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
