Written by Nidal Al-Maghribi
CAIRO (Reuters) – At least 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, medics said, while the Israeli military said it targeted militants operating from shelters and aid warehouses.
Medics said that at least 10 people were killed in an air strike near the Deir al-Balah municipality building in the central Gaza Strip, where people had gathered to receive aid.
Paramedics said that the victims were transported on foot, rickshaws, and private cars from the site of the attack to the hospital. A Hamas source said that the raid resulted in the killing of the head of the administrative committee run by Hamas in central Gaza, Diab Ali al-Jarro.
The Israeli army said that Al-Jarro, who was also the mayor of Deir al-Balah, was the target of the raid and that he helped Hamas activists. Four other people were killed in a separate raid in the area.
The Israeli army said that Israeli aircraft had earlier bombed activists and weapons caches near an aid warehouse after militants fired missiles at Israel from there on Friday. The army said another rocket was fired from Gaza at Israel on Saturday.
The army said that a separate raid in Gaza City on a former shelter for displaced people targeted Hamas fighters. Palestinian medics said that at least seven people were killed in this attack, including a woman and her child.
Reuters was unable to confirm whether any of the dead were fighters. Hamas does not disclose its losses, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health does not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants in its daily death toll
The Israeli army said it took precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.
Journalist killed
Health officials said local journalist Mohammed Baalousha, who worked for Dubai TV Al Mashhad, was killed in a separate airstrike in Gaza City. An army spokesman said that the army was studying the report.
At least 137 journalists and media workers were killed in Gaza during more than a year of war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The war began when the Palestinian Hamas movement stormed Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air, sea and land offensive that killed nearly 45,000 people, most of them civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, displacing almost the entire population and leaving most of the Strip in ruins.
A new attempt by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to reach a truce has gained momentum in recent weeks.
Sisi's office said that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed on Saturday with visiting American officials efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement on the release of hostages in exchange for prisoners in the Palestinian Strip.
