Some 20 people said killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as Palestinians mark Eid
Israel says it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and senior officials in renewed fighting; Khan Younis hospital says fatalities include at least 9 children and 3 women
At least 16 people, including nine children and three women, were reported killed in Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Sunday, the city’s Nasser Hospital said, as Palestinians observed the first day of Eid al-Fitr, a usually joyous Muslim holiday that marks the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast.
Hamas’s civil defense agency claimed that a pre-dawn strike hit a house and a tent sheltering displaced people. Another three people were killed in a strike in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah late Saturday, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, also reported two people killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the Strip’s north, and several people injured in a drone attack north of Rafah.
The Israeli Defense Forces did not provide any specific details on the strikes in question.
Since resuming operations in the Gaza Strip on March 18, the IDF has said it is targeting senior Hamas political officials and mid-level military commanders, along with the terror group’s infrastructure, including weapon depots and rocket launchers. Members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups have also been targeted.
The IDF has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.
“It’s the Eid of sadness,” Adel al-Shaer said after attending outdoor prayers in the central town of Deir al-Balah. “We lost our loved ones, our children, our lives and our futures. We lost our students, our schools and our institutions. We lost everything.”
Breaking into tears, Al-Shaer said 20 members of his extended family have been killed — including four young nephews just days ago — in Israeli strikes since the Gaza war was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill around 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, 24 of whom are still believed to be alive. The 35 confirmed dead include a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war.
Israel reached a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas in January, but after the deal’s first phase expired, Israel halted the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza on March 2 and resumed military activity in Gaza on March 18.
Saed al-Kourd, a worshiper, told The Associated Press that “there is killing, displacement, hunger and a siege.”
“We go out to perform God’s rituals in order to make the children happy,” said Kourd. “But as for the joy of Eid? There is no Eid.”
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
The strikes on Sunday came as Egyptian and Qatari mediators sought to renew the Israel-Hamas ceasefire with an offer that would reportedly see Hamas release five living hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire. Hamas said Saturday that it had accepted a new proposal from Egypt and Qatar. Israel confirmed having received the offer, and said it had responded with its own proposal in coordination with the United States, another mediator in the talks.
Amid mass protests in Israel against the scuttling of the Hamas ceasefire-hostage deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a cabinet meeting Sunday that “military pressure is working,” and vowed to promote US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace all of Gaza’s residents and rebuild the Strip as a resort destination.
The Times of Israel Community.