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At least 18 members of the same family were killed, including nine children, in Gaza on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike targeted their home, the civil defense agency said.
The agency confirmed that the strike hit the al-Ejlah family home in central Gaza’s al-Zawaida neighborhood.
“The toll from the Israeli strike on the al-Ejlah family home and their warehouse in al-Zawaida is 18 dead,” spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.
Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza.
The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children ages 2 to 22, the children’s grandmother and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s hospital.
“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbor. More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time, he said.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, claimed its forces had struck “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza from which rockets were being fired toward Israel.
“Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed. The incident is under review,” it said in a statement.
A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight (9 p.m. GMT Friday).
“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul told AFP as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.
“There were a lot of children and women inside … What have they done to deserve this?”
AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.
More than 10 months of Israel’s genocidal war has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian resistance groups also seized 251 people during the attack, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s brutal military campaign, in comparison, has killed at least 40,074 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
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