By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas
CAIRO/GAZA, July 21 (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday killed a father, his wife and their four children in Gaza City, while setting their home ablaze, health officials said, in the latest deadly attack since a U.S.-backed ceasefire was agreed more than nine months ago.
Medics said the Israeli strike on the family house in the Sabra neighbourhood killed the man, Firas Al-Masri, his wife, Salsabeel, and their three daughters and son.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying its target was a Hamas militant and it was still looking into the result of the attack.
A video obtained by Reuters showed rescue workers struggling to put out fires in the house and bring out bodies in white shrouds.
Masri’s father, Abu Yusuf Al-Masri, told Reuters the explosion took place as they were asleep, as he lamented the loss of his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
“We were unable to save our grandchildren and children from the flames and the devastation. Around five or six (people) were martyred, most of them children and women, without mercy and without any prior warning,” he said, standing outside the family house.
“There is no relative calm and there is no safe place, at all,” the grey-bearded man added.
HEAVY TOLL SINCE OCTOBER
In four separate strikes since Friday, the Israeli military said it had killed four militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, three of whom it said had taken part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war and had held Israeli hostages seized in the assault.
The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,150 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants took effect, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.
The truce halted full-scale fighting but has not stopped near-daily Israeli strikes. Israel says it is targeting militants. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.
Mediators including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States have been trying to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the conflict in Gaza, which calls for Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawals, but there has been little sign of progress in the efforts.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, say Gaza health officials.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people now live on a tiny strip of land along the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings and facing dire conditions, under Hamas control.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Aidan Lewis)
