ع
Gaza civil defence officials told AFP that strikes around midnight hit multiple residential buildings and left at least eight people dead. The attacks took place in different parts of the enclave including central areas and the south. A spokesman for the civil defence provided details on the strikes that also wounded several others. Authorities linked to the civil defence body which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its counts issued the toll according to reporting by both AFP and Reuters.
One strike by an Israeli military helicopter targeted an apartment near the central Gaza Strip where a man and his wife died while several people sustained injuries. A separate strike on an apartment west of Gaza City killed an elderly man and a child. Three additional people including another child lost their lives when a strike hit an apartment northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip according to the civil defence account relayed by AFP.
Hamas announced on Friday that it had accepted a plan championed by US President Donald Trump. The proposal includes provisions for the group to hand over its weapons along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. The announcement came amid efforts to reach a stage in negotiations that could end the ongoing war.
Israel has not issued an official comment on the Hamas acceptance of the plan. A political source told AFP however that there will be no withdrawal whatsoever without Hamas’s genuine disarmament. The source spoke on condition of anonymity in remarks conveyed through AFP correspondents.
The overnight deaths add to a toll from the previous day when authorities reported eight other people killed in strikes. Those earlier attacks damaged a hospital’s medical supplies warehouse and targeted a rooftop according to separate reporting by Al Jazeera which cited Palestinian officials. The strikes on the medical warehouse next to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah disrupted what officials described as a critical lifeline for the region.
Reuters which covered the latest developments noted the strikes occurred two days after the US unveiled elements of the disarmament and withdrawal framework. The news agency drew on information from Gaza civil defence teams in its dispatch. Similar accounts appeared in multiple regional outlets including the Times of Israel which referenced the same casualty figures and locations.
