Mourners gather during a funeral outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Deir al-Balah, 21 July 2026. [Getty]
Israeli strikes killed 12 people, including a family of six, in Gaza on Tuesday, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.
One airstrike hit a house belonging to the Al-Masri family in central Gaza City in the north. Witnesses said six members of the family were killed, including four children.
At the site, AFP journalists observed extensive damage to the charred multi-storey house, whose roof had almost completely collapsed.
Relatives gathered at the hospital. Some wept as the body of a girl was placed in a white plastic bag and laid alongside the other bodies wrapped in thick blankets.
The “attack took us by surprise”, said Ahmed al-Masri, who identified himself to AFP as a survivor of the strike.
“I could hear the children crying out for help, yet I was unable to save them,” he added.
“My brother’s entire family was wiped from the civil registry: him, his wife and their four children.”
He said he had helped his children escape through a window, while flames devoured the building.
Another witness, Youssef al-Masri, said the strike took place around 2:00 am.
“While we were asleep, we heard the sound of a massive explosion and found that the house had been shelled, destroyed and engulfed in flames,” he said.
The civil defence agency said six other people were killed on Tuesday in another Israeli strike in Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement brokered by the US and regional mediators in October has failed to stop Israeli attacks, which have continued on almost a daily basis over the past nine months.
At least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed since the truce was supposed to take effect on 10 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The United Nations condemned Israel’s escalating attacks in Gaza, which it said had killed at least 57 Palestinians from July 13 to 20.
“The Israeli military has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days,” UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
“Nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza.”
(AFP and TNA staff)
