Israeli strikes kill 12 in Gaza, including family of six
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- Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in three separate attacks across Gaza City, including six members of the al-Masri family — Firas, Salsabeel and their children Faryal, Salma, Amira and Naim — whose apartment caught fire in the al-Sabra neighbourhood overnight.
- The Israeli military said the strike on the al-Masri apartment targeted a Hamas operative and that it was still reviewing the attack's results; it has not yet commented on two subsequent strikes in the al-Samar and al-Zahra areas that killed six more.
- Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry reports at least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire took effect, compared with four Israeli soldiers killed in Palestinian attacks over the same period.
- The UN human rights office condemned the intensification, with spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan stating that between July 13 and 20, at least 57 Palestinians — including six children and eight women — were killed in strikes on residential buildings, a tent camp for displaced families, and other crowded areas.
- Al-Kheetan noted that 34 of those 57 were killed 'far away' from the Yellow Line marking Israeli-controlled territory, declaring 'nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire, still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza.'
- The broader toll since Israel's October 2023 military campaign began now exceeds 73,290 deaths, according to Gaza's health ministry, with Israel's stated targeting of Palestinian armed groups linked to the October 7, 2023 attack continuing to draw international humanitarian law warnings.
Why it matters: The UN's explicit tally — 34 of 57 recent Palestinian killings occurred outside Israeli-controlled territory — directly undercuts Israel's stated rationale that strikes target combatants near the Yellow Line, reinforcing the health ministry's running count of 1,168 post-ceasefire Palestinian deaths against four Israeli soldiers killed in the same window.
