Fresh deaths in Gaza underscored the fragility of a ceasefire that has failed to stop bloodshed, with the territory’s civil defence and hospitals reporting 10 people killed in Israeli attacks, including three children and their parents.
A truce remains in force between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but violence has continued in Gaza even as talks aimed at turning the pause into a lasting end to the war have stalled.
In northwest Gaza City, an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment and killed a family of five — three children and their parents — Gaza’s civil defence agency said. The agency functions as a rescue service under Hamas.
“The family’s only surviving member is one child, who was not inside the house at the time of the strike,” the agency’s spokesman, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP.
Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital said it received the five bodies.
On Saturday, an Israeli military spokeswoman said a strike had been conducted in Gaza City “targeting a Hamas terrorist”.
She said the military was still assessing the results.
Residents described a sudden blast and a lack of warning. Mousa Al-Aimawi, who lives in the area, said the missile struck without any prior notice.
“Suddenly there was a missile hitting the building. No one knew, no one, no warning, nothing,” he told AFP.
“They hit it without caring that there are civilians, children, women, girls.”
Another resident, Mohammed Kali, who lives in the same building, said he witnessed several people down on the ground after the strike.
“There were bodies scattered on the ground – women and children dead, and elderly people too,” he said.
AFP footage from the scene showed large sections of the building’s facade torn away, as rescue teams helped the wounded.
Nearby, onlookers sifted through broken concrete and mangled metal, trying to recover whatever personal items could be saved.
The civil defence agency said an Israeli airstrike later killed three more people after hitting a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Al-Shifa hospital confirmed it had received the three bodies.
Health officials said two other people were killed in separate Israeli attacks elsewhere in Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on those incidents.
Despite the ceasefire, attacks have continued.
Before Friday’s casualties, at least 1,144 Palestinians had been killed since the truce took effect last October, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Over the same period, the Israeli military says five soldiers have been killed in Gaza, along with one civilian contractor.
Restrictions imposed on media outlets and limited access in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying tolls or freely covering the violence there.
Palestinian teen footballer dies after Israeli settler shooting
In the occupied West Bank, officials and relatives said a 17-year-old Palestinian footballer has died, a week after he was shot during an attack by Israeli settlers.
Dozens of mourners in black carried the body of Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan — who played for Al-Mughayyir Club and was part of the Palestinian national youth team — from the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah to his home village for burial.
The Palestine Football Association said Israeli forces shot Nassan as settlers attacked the village on 11 July.
According to the association, the teenager was hit in the thigh, his leg was amputated, and he later died from the wounds.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“He loved football,” his father, Hamdallah Al-Nassan said.
“When the settlers attacked, he heard the screams of the girls and women,” he said. “He went to the scene of the attack and was killed.”
Dozens of mourners carried the body of Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan to his village for burial
Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that Nassan was wounded in the incident and later underwent an amputation. Wafa also said two other residents were struck by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces, and that a 10-year-old boy was hit on the head by a stun grenade.
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the United Nations has documented a steep rise in violence blamed on Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,088 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023 — including militants and civilians — according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.
Official Israeli figures say at least 46 Israelis, soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the West Bank since the Gaza war began.
Israeli rule change clears way for using crocodiles to deter prison breaks
In Israel, a regulatory change has opened the door to an unusual security measure: using crocodiles to help prevent prison escapes. Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has reclassified crocodiles from wild animals to “captive-bred wildlife”, a move that allows the reptiles to be deployed for security purposes.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right politician who reportedly proposed in December surrounding a prison holding Palestinian detainees with crocodiles — echoing Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility — praised the decision.
“Are you thinking of attempting to escape? Think again,” Mr Gvir wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, alongside an AI-generated image of himself with a crocodile on a leash.
Israel’s security minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaking to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The caption read: “Ministers Ben Gvir and Silman are cooperating and encircling prisons with crocodiles!”
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority had opposed Mr Gvir’s idea when it was first raised last year.
By reclassifying the animals, oversight shifts from the authority to a “security body” — a category that includes the Israel Prison Service, which Mr Gvir oversees.
The regulation, signed into law on Wednesday, states that Nile crocodiles may be bred as long as “they are held by a security body… under conditions determined by the Director (of the Nature and Parks Authority) to prevent their release into the wild, and subject to the Minister of Environmental Protection determining that their possession is required for security purposes”.
Israeli media said Mr Gvir plans to place crocodiles around Ketziot prison in southern Israel.
Channel 13 reported that when Mr Gvir first presented the idea last year, it was “met with ridicule by several officers” within the Israel Prison Service.
