Israeli strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said Wednesday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year with no end in sight.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has been waging a major operation since early October.
Gaza’s health ministry initially said seven people were killed, including a woman and four children, and that at least a dozen other people were wounded. The death toll later rose to 17.
Another strike overnight into Wednesday in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment although in a post on X, its Arabic spokesperson warned residents of al-Bureij earlier to evacuate ahead of an imminent strike against militants firing rockets from the area.
It also said overnight that it killed Abd al-Hadi Sabah, a Hamas member who helped lead the infiltration into Kibbutz Nir Oz during the 7 October 2023 attack, when the militant group killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Strip. It says women and children make up more than half the fatalities but does not say how many of those killed were militants.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and razed, fuelling speculation Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. It says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands are living in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10C at night. At least four infants have died of hypothermia.
American and Arab mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but those efforts have repeatedly stalled as Hamas demands a lasting ceasefire and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to keep fighting until “total victory” over the militants.
