Israeli attacks on residential areas in Gaza kill eight

Israeli attacks on residential areas in Gaza kill eight

Israeli attacks on residential areas in Gaza City on Saturday targeted neighbourhoods al-Nasr and al-Zeitoun. A warplane destroyed an apartment in al-Nasr, and artillery fire hit the district of al-Zeitoun. The attacks followed Israel’s expansion of areas targeted within Gaza, surpassing the “Yellow Line” meant to denote the limit of military action during the fragile “ceasefire.”

Two missiles struck a second-floor apartment in al-Nasr, killing five people, as reported by medical sources at Al Shifa hospital complex. The apartment building was destroyed, and an adjacent block was damaged, witnesses stated. Several residents in the densely populated area, busy with pedestrians, were wounded. Rescue teams were searching for victims trapped in the rubble, with the death toll likely to rise.

Earlier, artillery fire killed three people in al-Zeitoun, another Gaza City neighbourhood, with similar strikes recently hitting Tel al-Hawa. Israel confirmed strikes across Gaza, as reported by the Associated Press.

Despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” in October under President Donald Trump's plan to end the war and begin rebuilding, Israeli strikes continue. At least 1,127 Palestinians have died, including at least 260 children since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It reported five Israeli soldier fatalities within the same period. Israeli military reportedly now controls about 70 percent of Gaza, exceeding the area expected under the “ceasefire.”

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported that the expansion was “shrinking” and “fragmenting” the territory into smaller, disconnected areas, complicating Palestinians' movement and erasing urban life, resulting in lost livelihoods for residents.