Israeli forces kill 12 Palestinians including 6 children across Gaza, attacks reported in Rafah
At least 12 Palestinians, half of them children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since dawn, a day before the Rafah crossing is due to reopen.
An Israeli air strike on Saturday on a tent sheltering displaced people, in the al-Mawasi area to the northwest of Khan Younis city, killed at least seven Palestinians, including three children, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Their bodies were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
In Gaza City, emergency services reported that at least five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on an apartment building in the Remal neighbourhood to the west of the city.
Gaza death toll rises
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has released its latest daily statistical report on casualties resulting from Israel’s attacks on the enclave.
The ministry said that 17 people were killed and 49 others were wounded over the past 48 hours across Gaza. This figure includes 12 people who were killed since dawn today, it said.
Since the October 10 ceasefire, the ministry said 509 people have been killed and 1,405 injured, while 715 bodies have been recovered during the same period. The ministry said that since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on October 7, 2023, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has reached 71,769, with 171,483 people injured.
‘Dangerous escalation’: Hamas raises alarm over Israeli attack on displaced people in southern Gaza
The Palestinian group says this morning’s Israeli attack on a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis is “a dangerous escalation and a deliberate undermining of the ceasefire agreement”.
“The ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the [Israeli] occupation […] and the rise in the number of martyrs in various areas of the Gaza Strip in recent hours to 12, including 6 children, represent a brutal crime and a renewed and blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the group said in a statement.
The incident reveals Israel’s “manipulation” of the ceasefire four months after it first came into effect, Hamas said. 
Smoke and fire rises from the Gath shelter, housing displaced Palestinians, after an Israeli air strike in the west of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip
