Seven Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza Friday and Saturday, including a child and three Hamas-affiliated police officers, medical sources told Al Manassa.
The deaths came in separate Israeli strikes and amid heavy gunfire during military incursions in northern and central Gaza, where residents reported the expansion of Israeli-controlled areas. Civil defense teams also resumed efforts to recover bodies from under the rubble.
An Israeli reconnaissance aircraft struck tents housing displaced families in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, on Saturday, killing two people, including a child, a medical source at Nasser Medical Complex told Al Manassa. Seven wounded people were also transferred to the hospital, including two in critical condition.
The strike hit tents sheltering displaced families without prior warning, killing and injuring civilians, including four children, and destroying tents and personal belongings, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Al Manassa.
On Friday, three Hamas police officers were killed when an Israeli strike hit their vehicle on Salah Al-Din Road near the entrance of Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Six bystanders were also injured.
A witness told Al Manassa that an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft fired a missile at the vehicle, setting it ablaze. He said a second missile struck shortly afterward as civilians gathered to evacuate the wounded, killing one of the injured officers and wounding others.
Another two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza as Israeli forces advanced into the Al-Atatra area of Beit Lahia under heavy fire, according to witnesses. Residents said Israeli forces continued firing for more than an hour while pushing yellow concrete barriers toward displacement tents, reducing the area available to civilians.
In central Gaza, Israeli forces also opened heavy machine-gun fire after midnight in Wadi Abu Rashid, between Al-Masdar village and Al-Maghazi camp, while tanks fired artillery shells to cover the advance of military vehicles toward residential areas, according to a witness.
The witness said Israeli forces surrounded a house belonging to the Al-Masdar family, where several families were sheltering, and fired heavily at the building and surrounding area for more than two hours before withdrawing after placing yellow concrete blocks less than 10 meters from the house.
The Israeli military has intensified ground incursions across Gaza in recent weeks, using armored vehicles, heavy fire, and concrete barriers to further restrict movement and expand areas under its control, according to residents.
Separately, Gaza’s Civil Defense resumed rescue operations on Saturday, searching for victims trapped under the rubble of a destroyed home belonging to the Ghabboun family in Gaza City’s Al-Rimal neighborhood.
Nine people are believed to remain buried under the debris, according to Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal.
Rescue teams had been unable to conduct recovery operations for months after most of their equipment was destroyed, but they recently received support from international organizations, Basal told Al Manassa, estimating that more than 10,000 people remain missing under the rubble across Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 1,038 Palestinians have been killed and 3,329 injured since the October ceasefire announcement, while the overall death toll from the war that began in 2023 has reached 73,051, with 173,437 wounded.
