Israeli airstrike on Gaza house said to kill family of 10, mostly kids

An Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip overnight Friday-Saturday hit a house in Gaza City, killing at least 10 Palestinians, most of them kids, Palestinians said.

Eight children and two women, all belonging to the Abu Hatab family, were killed, Gaza medical officials said.

Another 15 people were injured, according to multiple reports.

The airstrike early Saturday in the western part of Gaza City recorded the highest number of fatalities in a single hit.

Mohammed Abu Hatab told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives. She and three of the children, aged 6 to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old was missing. Only his 5-month-old son Omar is known to have survived.

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Said Alghoul, who lives nearby, said Israeli warplanes dropped at least three bombs on the three-story house without warning its residents in advance.

“I saw the bodies of four people, including children, being rushed to the hospital,” he said. “I could not endure and ran back to my home.”

He said rescuers called a bulldozer to dig up the rubble as they looked for survivors or bodies.

Shortly afterward, Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike.

There was no immediate response from the IDF, which said earlier that it continues to target rocket launching sites. In one announcement overnight, the military said its aircraft attacked several rocket launching sites and two Hamas “terror squads” in the Gaza Strip.

“The attacks were carried out through a quick closing of the circle, lethal fire capability and accurate intelligence of the Gaza Division,” the army said in a statement.

Israel claims that several cases of civilian casualties in Gaza have been caused by Palestinian rockets falling short. Israel has also accused terror groups of launching rockets from densely populated civilian areas.