Palestinians attend the funeral of Kholoud Abu Dahr, 27, and her 8-year-old son Adam near Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, after they died during an Israel Defense Forces airstrike early on Jan. 1. Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE
The new year brought more death for civilians in Gaza as Israel Defense Forces airstrikes resulted in 17 killed on Wednesday, according to Palestinian accounts.
Israeli airstrikes on the al-Bureij refugee camp and Jabalia in central and northern Gaza at dawn on Wednesday killed at least 17 and injured many others, the Palestinian-run WAFA News Agency reported. Advertisement
At least 15 were killed when IDF aircraft targeted a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, which killed at least 15, most of whom were children, WAFA reported.
IDF officials said the strike in al-Bureij targeted Hamas militants who had fired rockets into Israel from that location. It claimed to have warned civilians to evacuate the area prior to the airstrike.
“Hamas continues to threaten our civilians and just fired two rockets, triggering sirens in southern Israel,” IDF officials said Wednesday in a post on X.
“We will continue operating to bring our 100 remaining hostages home and dismantle Hamas,”
Another IDF aircraft struck a home in the al-Bureij refugee camp, which killed two civilians during the dawn airstrikes in Gaza, the Palestinians said. Advertisement
Although some reports say the military strikes killed 17, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said at least 23 were killed in morning attacks by the IDF in Gaza, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported.
The latest military actions by the IDF raised the death toll to at least 45,514 in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
Palestinian sources do not differentiate between civilian and Hamas militants when issuing casualty reports in Gaza.
Hamas, which the United States in 1997 designated a foreign terrorist organization, killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians and captured more than 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
A U.N. report released in March concluded “victims first subjected to rape were then killed” during the Hamas attack on Israel and cited at least two incidents of Hamas militants sexually assaulting women’s corpses, NBC News reported.
The U.N. report also says “there are reasonable grounds” to believe “rape and gang-rape” occurred across multiple locations in Israel during the Hamas attack.
The International Criminal Court has issued warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas for alleged violations of international law.
Critics have accused Israel of engaging in genocide, which Netanyahu has denied and cited more births than deaths in Gaza as proof. Advertisement
He also said Hamas uses civilians, schools and hospitals as shields against military reprisals in violation of international law and does not allow civilians to use its tunnel network for shelter.
