Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a senior rescue service official and a journalist, local health authorities said.
The latest deaths in the Israeli campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north, and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.
Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory’s civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 220.
Israel’s military said in a statement that chief of staff Eyal Zamir visited troops in Khan Younis on Sunday, telling them that “this is not an endless war” and that Hamas has lost most of its assets, including its command and control.
“We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas and dismantle its rule,” Zamir was cited as saying.
The statement did not address Sunday’s strikes,
Israel claims Gaza City school attack targeted ‘terrorists’
In a joint statement with the security agency, Shin Bet, it said the school-turned-shelter that was housing displaced Palestinians “was used by the terrorists to plan and gather intelligence in order to execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and [army] troops”.
Despite killing and burning to death at least 30 people, the statement said that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
The Israeli military has bombed hundreds of such places sheltering forcibly displaced civilians since the start of the war in 2023.
Later on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC said in a statement that two of its staff – Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal – had been killed in a strike on a house in Khan Younis on Saturday.
“Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza. The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian relief, and civil defence personnel,” the ICRC statement added.
In a separate statement, the Gaza media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77% of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes.
The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.
On Friday the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.
The conflict has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.
Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa compound amid heavy security for ‘Jerusalem Day’
Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday to mark “Jerusalem Day,” prompting heightened tensions and heavy deployment of Israeli forces.
Waving Israeli flags, chanting nationalistic slogans, and performing Talmudic rituals, the settlers moved through the compound under the protection of thousands of Israeli police and border officers. Early in the morning, large crowds had also gathered at the Western Wall to perform prayers.
The provocative march extended through the narrow alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City — including the Muslim Quarter — as settlers commemorated the 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, an event Palestinians and much of the international community consider illegal under international law.
Residents and eyewitnesses reported multiple incidents of harassment and violence by settlers toward Palestinian civilians and shopkeepers along the route. In previous years, similar marches have led to clashes and widespread unrest in the city.
Despite the heavy security presence, tensions remain high across East Jerusalem, with Palestinian worshippers and residents expressing fear over continued provocations at one of Islam’s holiest sites.
The storming of Al-Aqsa — which is under Jordanian custodianship but controlled by Israeli forces — has been condemned repeatedly by Muslim-majority nations and human rights groups for undermining the status quo and escalating sectarian tensions.
