GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes on Sunday killed 23 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in the bloodiest day of its bombing campaign over the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Of the overall toll, eight were children and five were women.By far the bloodiest strike was in northern Gaza City where a missile levelled a three-storey building, killing eight members of the Al-Dallu family, four of them children, and two other people, medics said.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra named the dead as Mohammed al-Dallu, 35, a policeman, Suheila al-Dallu, 50, Samah al-Dallu, 22, and four children: Jamal and Sara, whose ages were not immediately available, Yussef, five, and 11-month-old Ibrahim al-Dallu.
The body of another woman, from the same family, was also pulled from the rubble but her identity was not immediately clear.The other two victims, who lived next door, were named as Amina Mattar al-Muzzana, 83, and Abdullah Mohammed al-Muzzana, 22, he said.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the strike, admitting only that the air force had hit “a few targets in northern Gaza City.”Shortly afterwards, four more Palestinians were killed in three separate strikes, two in Gaza City and one on the Jabaliya refugee camp.
In Gaza City, Sami al-Ghafir was killed in a raid on the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood, and Mohammed al-Awf was killed in the north of the city.The strike on Jabaliya killed Suheil Hamada and his son Moamin as they were driving a water delivery truck through the refugee camp.
And in the early evening, a strike on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed Aatiya Mubarak, a statement from the emergency services said.
