Israel snuffs out 58 lives in 24 hours, women & children among victims
Jerusalem: Gaza’s Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.
Hospitals also received 213 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report Tuesday.
The overall Palestinian death toll in the war rose to at least 50,810 since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the ministry said. Another 115,688 people have been wounded, it said.
It said the dead include 1,499 who have been killed since Israel resumed the war last month, shattering a ceasefire that had taken hold in January. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed have been women and children.
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics.
A strike on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah killed 11 people, including five children as young as two, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
Another four people were killed in a separate strike that hit a house in Deir al-Balah, it said.
Another strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya flattened a home and killed a family of seven, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A separate strike hit a group of people in an open area northwest of Gaza City, killing four people, including one who was planning to get married next week, the ministry said.
Also, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank who they said had thrown rocks at them and tried to stab them.
No Israeli soldiers were wounded in Tuesday’s incident, which occurred at a traffic junction near an Israeli settlement.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Amana Yacoub, 30, from the nearby town of Salfit.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court is hearing a group of eight cases challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to dismiss the head of the country’s internal security agency.
The hearing sets the stage for what will be the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary. Any decision it makes is likely to deepen a rift in Israel over the power of the courts over elected lawmakers.
Critics say the decision to fire Ronen Bar is tainted by a conflict of interest because the internal security agency is investigating ties between Netanyahu’s office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. Bar’s supporters say Netanyahu demanded loyalty from the head of an organization that is meant to be apolitical. Netanyahu says his decision came after a crisis of confidence in his domestic security.
