An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed a family of six in Gaza city and set their home on fire, health officials said, in the latest deadly attack on the enclave since a ceasefire came into effect last October.
The attack on the family house in the Sabra neighbourhood killed Firas Al Masri, his wife and their four children.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, claiming its target was a Hamas militant and saying it was still looking into the outcome of the attack.
Mr Masri's father, Abu Yusuf, told Reuters the attack took place while the family was asleep. “We were unable to save our grandchildren and children from the flames and the devastation,” he said. “There is no relative calm and there is no safe place at all.”
A US-backed ceasefire agreement in Gaza that came into effect in October last year has done little to end near-daily Israeli strikes. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, there has been a sharp rise in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave in recent days. At least two Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli air strike on a vehicle in central Gaza on Tuesday.
Between July 13 and 20, the Israeli army has killed at least 57 Palestinians in Gaza, including six children and eight women, the OHCHR said. It said 34 of those were killed far from the “yellow line”, the boundary of an expanding Israeli-controlled zone that has swallowed parts of northern and eastern Gaza.
“The Israeli military has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians – children, women and men,” the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said. “Nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire [and] still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza.
“The Palestinian population in Gaza remains trapped in an ever-shrinking area, with the yellow line constantly being moved westward by the Israeli occupying power.”
According to figures released by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Monday, Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement have killed 1,158 Palestinians and injured 3,756. Most of those were women and children, a source at the ministry said.
Although large-scale military operations have decreased, residents say Israeli attacks, forced displacement orders, artillery fire and territorial expansion are continuing across Gaza.
Ahmed Al Majayda, a Palestinian social media activist, told The National that the ceasefire has created a misleading impression of safety among people outside the Palestinian territory, while its residents continue to face death and displacement.
“The world believes that the ceasefire is protecting Palestinians and preventing further bloodshed,” he said. “In reality, it has become a cover behind which Israel continues its daily crimes against civilians.”
