An Israeli airstrike has killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded more than 20 others as they attended a funeral in the central besieged Gaza Strip.
Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp confirmed the casualties, reporting that the strike directly hit mourners gathered for the funeral of a Palestinian martyred in an earlier Israeli attack on the same day.
Combined with several other Palestinians killed in separate Israeli airstrikes across the blockaded territory, Friday’s death toll reached at least 12.
Meanwhile, residents east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza reported that Israeli occupation forces used drones to broadcast audio messages ordering them to evacuate their homes, forcing families to flee once again amid this systematic campaign of displacement and psychological terror.
The Hamas resistance movement strongly condemned the Nuseirat strike as a “brutal massacre” against mourners and urged mediators as well as the United Nations to intervene immediately and halt Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Hamas further declared that “these ongoing atrocities, despite the brutality of the occupiers and their plans to perpetuate suffering and displacement, will not break the will and resolve of the Palestinian people.”
These latest deaths bring the total number of Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire to more than 1,100. During this period, the bodies of approximately 800 martyrs have also been recovered from under the rubble.
According to the US-based conflict monitor ACLED, Israeli airstrikes against Palestinian targets in Gaza rose to more than 40 in June, the highest monthly total since the ceasefire. Many of these strikes targeted civilians near the dividing lines imposed on the besieged Strip, killing and injuring women and children.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues its genocidal war, with plans to occupy and control around 70% of the Gaza Strip while confining the remaining population of about two million to just 30% of the territory.
Since Israel launched its genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been martyred and over 173,000 injured. Nearly 90% of the coastal enclave’s civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
