Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate airstrikes early on Tuesday on Gaza City, and the dead included a sister of Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the militant Islamist Hamas group that has ruled the Gaza enclave since 2007, Gaza health officials and medics said. The house in the Shati neighborhood was owned by the extended family of Haniyeh, who leads Hamas’ diplomacy and is the public face of the group that governs Gaza. He has lost many relatives in Israeli strikes since Israel launched a war on the enclave on October 7, including three sons. The Israeli military said it had targeted “militants involved in planning attacks on Israel” overnight in Gaza City and struck weapons storage facilities.
It said the airstrikes hit a building used by Hamas commanders in Shati and other buildings that held weapons, and the military disputed claims that it had accidentally struck civilians. A senior IDF official, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said investigators were looking into the possibility that a large fire that ignited after an attack was caused by weapons or ammunition stored in the building and played what he described as an intercepted phone conversation between two Gaza residents suggesting this.
He said the IDF was pursuing its goal of “crushing Hamas’ ability to govern Gaza and threaten Israel again.” But he insisted that Israel’s campaign to crush the group would continue until “it has reached its objectives, including destroying its rocket arsenal.”
Israeli tanks also pressed deeper into western areas of Rafah in the south of the enclave overnight, blowing up homes, residents said. The pounding continued into Tuesday morning, and aerial photos showed entire rows of houses reduced to a smear of dust and twisted metal. At one complex of 13 high-rises by the sea, all that remained were a few tottering slabs of facade.
The destruction of neighborhoods in the southern part of the enclave where people sought safety from Israel’s war came despite efforts by U.S. officials to convince Israel to open up a new route for humanitarian aid to be delivered in the area. That effort has been hampered by groups of armed Gaza residents who have blocked convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo.
The United Nations has warned that the death toll in besieged Gaza is spiraling out of control. It said 46 of its 72 primary healthcare facilities had stopped functioning, and 12 out of 35 hospitals were packed beyond capacity. It urged Washington to exert pressure on Israel to allow aid into the enclave but gave no indication it expected Israel to do so soon. It has not allowed the Rafah crossing to reopen for more than two weeks, and a new crossing in Egypt’s border zone has been shut by a breakdown of law and order, with armed militias frequently blocking trucks carrying supplies to Gaza. This has left tens of thousands of Gazans without access to food, clean water, and medicine.
