Gaza Hospital Officials Report 11 Palestinians Killed by Israeli Fire Including Children and Journalists
Hospital officials in the war-battered Gaza Strip have reported that Israeli forces killed at least eleven Palestinians on Wednesday, including two thirteen-year-old boys, three journalists, and a woman. The Israeli military has not provided immediate comment on these incidents, which represent the latest violence in the region since a ceasefire took effect in October.
Separate Incidents Claim Young Lives
According to officials from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, one thirteen-year-old boy was killed alongside his father and a twenty-two-year-old man in a strike by Israeli drones on the eastern side of the central Bureij refugee camp. The hospital received their bodies, though it remains unclear whether the men had entered Israeli-controlled areas.
In a separate incident, Nasser Hospital reported that another thirteen-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli troops while collecting firewood in the eastern town of Bani Suheila. Online footage circulated showing the boy's father weeping over his son's body on a hospital bed, highlighting the personal tragedies unfolding.
Journalists Targeted in Central Gaza Strike
Later on Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a vehicle carrying three Palestinian journalists in the central town of Zahraa. Mohammed Mansour, spokesman for an Egyptian government committee, stated the journalists were filming a newly established displacement camp managed by the committee in the Netzarim area of central Gaza.
Mansour noted the strike occurred approximately five kilometres from Israeli-controlled territory and emphasised the vehicle was known to the Israeli military as belonging to the Egyptian committee. The bodies of two journalists were taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, while the third was received by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Video footage online depicted the charred, bombed-out vehicle by the roadside with smoke still rising from the wreckage and debris scattered about, underscoring the attack's severity.
Further Casualties and Broader Context
Nasser Hospital officials also confirmed receiving the body of a Palestinian woman shot and killed by Israeli troops in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, a southern city not under military control. In another attack, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported three brothers were killed by tank shelling in the Bureij camp.
These deaths add to the toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began in October. The strip's health ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, reports over four hundred and seventy Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, with at least seventy-seven killed by Israeli gunfire near the ceasefire line dividing the territory.
United Nations agencies and independent experts generally regard the ministry's detailed casualty records as reliable, providing a grim account of the ongoing conflict's human cost.
Humanitarian Crisis Persists Despite Ceasefire
The ceasefire, which paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants, allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, primarily food. However, residents continue to face severe shortages, including blankets, warm clothing, and wood for fires.
Gaza has had no central electricity since the early days of the war in 2023, and fuel for generators remains scarce. Tragically, more than one hundred children have died since the ceasefire began in October, including a twenty-seven-day-old girl who succumbed to hypothermia over the weekend, illustrating the dire living conditions.
