GazaHerald – At least 26 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip on Friday morning in a fresh wave of Israeli air and artillery attacks, according to medical sources, pushing the already staggering toll of this war even higher. The dead include six civilians who were attempting to access aid, as strikes continue to hit locations previously designated as “safe zones.”
In the early hours, an Israeli missile strike on the Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City killed three people. Meanwhile, five others were killed in a separate attack on Jabalia al-Nazla, in the north.
One of the most horrifying incidents took place in al-Mawasi, near Rafah, once declared a “safe zone” by Israel. A strike hit tents sheltering displaced families, sparking a massive fire and killing at least five people, including infants.
Children with burns and shrapnel wounds were rushed to the Nasser Medical Complex, many of them showing signs of trauma caused by drone-fired missiles packed with nails and metal fragments. Local medics say these weapons are increasingly used against crowded civilian areas, markets, water queues, and aid lines, causing catastrophic internal injuries.
Across the Strip, hospitals reported at least 41 people killed in less than 24 hours, from Thursday dawn to Friday morning. In Gaza City and the northern regions alone, 30 people were confirmed dead. In the south, the Israeli military stepped up demolitions of residential blocks in Khan Yunis. Entire families are feared buried under rubble.
The Sheikh Radwan Clinic in northern Gaza reported four deaths following an Israeli strike on Al-Saftawi junction, northwest of Gaza City. Meanwhile, the Nasser Medical Complex confirmed the death of a civilian and multiple injuries following Israeli artillery fire on a school sheltering displaced people west of Khan Yunis.
Later, two more bodies were recovered after a separate shelling in the center of the city.
Since the start of the assault on October 7, 2023, Israel, with full US political and military backing, has been accused of waging a campaign of genocide against Gaza’s population. Over 195,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured, most of them women and children. More than 10,000 are missing, presumed buried under rubble, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times.
