Israeli strike kills brother and sister in Gaza ‘safe zone’
Rescue teams pull seven injured people from the wreckage and transport them to nearby hospitals, Gaza's civil defence says
Even as a fragile ceasefire continues to frame hopes of respite, violence once again tore through Gaza on Saturday, when Israeli strikes hit tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing two siblings and leaving several others wounded in what local medical officials described as another deadly attack on designated "safe zones", the Al Jazeera reported.
Medical sources said an Israeli drone struck two makeshift tents in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, killing 15-year-old Islam Moussa and her 30-year-old brother, Abdullah Moussa. Gaza's civil defence said rescue teams pulled seven injured people from the wreckage before they were rushed to Nasser Hospital and the nearby Red Cross Hospital for treatment.
Scenes of grief unfolded in the courtyard of Nasser Hospital, where relatives gathered around the bodies of the brother and sister wrapped in white burial shrouds, mourning lives cut short by yet another strike.
In a separate incident, 10-year-old Walid Youssef Abu Jazar succumbed to injuries sustained days earlier in an Israeli bombardment of al-Mawasi, according to a source at Nasser Hospital.
Another Israeli strike targeted a tent housing displaced families in western Gaza City, wounding at least 12 people, hospital officials said. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that most of the injured were women, while two victims remained in critical condition.
The latest deaths come amid renewed international scrutiny over the impact of the war on children. A recent United Nations report documented widespread child casualties in Gaza, estimating that children account for nearly 30 per cent of those killed since the conflict escalated in October 2023.
Children's rights advocate Rachel Accurso, widely known as Ms Rachel, said the international community had failed to protect Gaza's youngest residents.
"We are watching children who are just like our own try to survive a genocide, and yet there's been no action, no accountability," she said while speaking alongside one of the report's authors.
Chris Sidoti, a member of the UN commission that co-authored the report, described its findings as "absolutely heartbreaking."
"States have obligations to act, legal obligations to act. We should have been acting three and a half years ago, but it's not too late to start," he said.
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 73,043 Palestinians have been killed and 173,417 wounded since October 2023. The ministry also said 1,031 Palestinians have been killed and 3,309 injured since the ceasefire announced last October, figures that have not been independently verified.
The Israeli military has not immediately commented on the latest strikes.