Gaza City: The death toll arising from an Israeli strike that targeted Jabalia in the northern war-battered Gaza Strip earlier on Friday has risen to 10. WAFA correspondents reported that an Israeli fighter jet targeted a house belonging to the Najjar family in Jabalia al-Balad, claiming the lives of 10 civilians and injuring others.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, earlier in the day, an Israeli combat drone targeted a charging point for cell phones located between tents sheltering displaced people to the west of Khan Younes, resulting in the deaths of four individuals and injuring several others. Concurrently, Israeli forces opened fire at an aid distribution center to the west of Rafah, claiming another four lives.
The escalation follows Israel's unilateral decision to end the Gaza ceasefire agreement and resume hostilities on Tuesday, March 18, sparking a series of airstrikes across the Strip. These actions have led to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, including over 100 children. Medical sources report a death toll reaching at least 4,402, with 13,489 others wounded. Emergency teams are actively working to recover victims still trapped beneath the rubble.
In the past 24 hours alone, hospitals in the Strip admitted the bodies of 70 slain Palestinians, including three retrieved from the rubble, alongside 189 casualties. These figures do not account for fatalities and casualties in the northern Strip, which remain inaccessible.
The renewed aggression has sparked severe concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Strip, given the ongoing siege and restrictions on the entry of medical and humanitarian aid. Since October 2023, Israel's military actions have resulted in the deaths of at least 54,677 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 125,530 others.
Moreover, the conflict has left at least 10,000 individuals unaccounted for, presumed dead beneath the rubble of their homes across the Strip. This military onslaught has also forcibly displaced nearly two million people, with most seeking refuge in the densely populated southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, marking Palestine's largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.