Khan Yunis, April 18 (RHC)-- Israel has conducted fresh aerial assaults on the Gaza Strip, killing a total of 26 Palestinians, including a family of 13. Reports said on Friday that 13 members of the Baraka family, mostly children, lost their lives as their home was bombed by Israeli warplanes in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
Gaza's civil defense agency said that its crews recovered the bodies of the martyrs “and a large number of injuries from the house of the Baraka family and the neighboring houses targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.”
Other Israeli airstrikes targeted the Nasibu family home in Tal Al-Zaatar, in northern Gaza Strip, killing 11 people, including women and children. Additionally on Friday, a father and his son lost their lives in Israeli attacks on the Abu Akr family house in Western Khan Yunis.
On Thursday, Israeli air raids killed at least 40 Palestinians, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, across Gaza. One of the deadly strikes hit tents in the coastal al-Mawasi area near Khan Yunis.
"We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God's protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing – and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire," said Israa Abu al-Rus.
"This is supposed to be a safe area in al-Mawasi, and the place just exploded. We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning."
In an X post, the head of the UN children's agency UNICEF said 15 children were the victims of the Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours. “Images of children burning while sheltering in makeshift tents should shake us all to our core,” Catherine Russell added.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, but it failed to achieve its declared objectives despite killing 51,065 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring more than 116,505 others.
The usurping entity accepted longstanding negotiation terms by the Hamas resistance group under the Gaza ceasefire, which began on January 19th. On March 18th, however, Israel unilaterally broke the truce and resumed its relentless bombing of Gaza.
[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]
