
Since the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel was announced on Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes have continued across the Gaza Strip, with northern Gaza facing the heaviest attacks, officials said Friday morning emergency in the area.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency services organization, said more than two dozen children were among the victims and that more than 200 people were injured across the territory. The highest toll was in Gaza City, where more than 80 Palestinians were killed, Civil Protection said.
The group’s figures cannot be independently confirmed. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said Israeli warplanes hit houses in northeast Gaza City, causing deaths and injuries. Rescuers and ambulance crews were unable to reach the area to recover the bodies, Wafa said.
Ahmad al-Mashharwi, who has taken refuge with more than a dozen family members in a rented house in Gaza City, described the attacks as relentless.
“The ceasefire seems meaningless,” he said in a telephone interview. “Artillery and air strikes continue around us, especially in northern Gaza.”
The ceasefire, if it comes into force, should pave the way for further humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. Al-Mashharwi said conditions in northern Gaza were dire, with prices rising and even the most basic goods in short supply.
“We can’t afford food or clean water, and my children are going hungry,” she said. “We have been deprived of everything: there is no security, no resources, nothing to help us survive.”