Rafah, Gaza Strip—

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said on Saturday, as Israel continues its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel’s war against the Islamist militant group Hamas has led to a dramatic escalation of tensions in an already volatile Middle East.

The attack late Friday hit a residential building in the Tell Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah city, according to Gaza Civil Defense. Hospital records show that the bodies of six children – two women and one man – were taken to Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

At the hospital, weeping relatives hugged the children’s bodies, wrapped in white shrouds, while others comforted them.

His brother-in-law, Ahmed Barhoum, said the dead included Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najila Ay Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children. Barhoum also lost his wife Rawan Radwan and their 5-year-old daughter Alaa.

“This is a world completely devoid of human values ​​and morals,” Bahom told The Associated Press on Saturday morning, crying as he held Ala’s body and gently rocked him in his arms. “They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. “There were no martyrs, just women and children. “

No victims were registered during the city’s second nighttime strike.

Rafah, located on the border with Egypt, is currently home to more than half of Gaza’s total population (approximately 2.3 million people), the vast majority of whom have been displaced by fighting in the north of the area.

Despite calls for restraint from the international community, including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, the Israeli government has insisted for months that it intends to launch a ground offensive against the city, saying many remaining Hamas militants are holed up there. .

To date, no such ground operation has materialized, but the Israeli military has carried out multiple air strikes in and around the city.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas and other armed groups on southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and about 250 people were kidnapped and taken into Gaza . Israel says about 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but 30 hostages have been confirmed dead, either on October 7 or in captivity.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that 37 bodies of victims of Israeli attacks had been brought to Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours. It is said that the hospital also admitted 68 injured people. The total number of Palestinian deaths caused by the war between Israel and Hamas reached at least 34,049 and the number of injured reached 76,901, the ministry said. Although Hamas-run health authorities do not distinguish between combatants and civilians when counting the numbers, they say at least two-thirds are children and women.

The war has escalated regional tensions, leading to a violent conflict between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran that threatens to escalate into an all-out war.

Iran and Israel both played down an apparent Israeli airstrike on Friday near a major air base and nuclear facilities in central Iran, a sign that both sides are retreating from a situation that could turn into a full-scale conflict. Iran has launched unprecedented missile attacks on Israel over the past few weeks after an alleged Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals at the Iranian consulate in Syria.

Israel is also in a standoff with the Iranian proxy Hezbollah armed group operating in Lebanon, with both sides regularly carrying out rocket and drone attacks across the Lebanese-Israeli border. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also joined the fight, launching attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Tensions are also high in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli military attack on the Noor Shams refugee camp on Friday killed at least four Palestinians, including Three militants.

Palestinian health authorities said one of the victims was a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead by Israeli fire. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed the deaths of three members, one of whom it said was a local military commander. The Israeli military said four Israeli soldiers were slightly injured during the operation.

Islamic Jihad’s military arm, Saraya al-Quds, said its militants engaged in fierce gun battles with Israeli forces in the town of Tulkarem, adjacent to Nour Shams, on Saturday morning.

No further details are available at this time.

Residents of Tulkarem went on a general strike on Saturday to protest the Nour Shams attack, with shops, restaurants and government offices closed.

Palestinian health officials say Israeli artillery fire in the West Bank has killed more than 460 Palestinians since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7. Israel frequently attacks towns in the restive region. Among the dead were militants, stone throwers and bystanders. Some people have also been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers.