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09-06-2025
GAZA STRIP: Israeli raids across Gaza have killed at least 75 Palestinians, with rescuers scrambling to find dozens of bodies under the rubble after the bombing of a residential building in Gaza City described by the enclave’s civil defence as a “full-fledged massacre”.
Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basel told media that the Israeli army gave “no warning, no alert” before Saturday’s strike on the house in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City that left at least 16 people dead, including women and children.
“This is truly a full-fledged massacre … a building full of civilians,” said Basel, who added that approximately 85 people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.
“We woke up to the strikes, destruction, yelling, rocks hitting us,” said Hamed Keheel, a displaced Palestinian at the site, noting that the attack had taken place on the second day of Eid al-Adha.
“This is the occupation,” he said. “Instead of waking up to cheer our children and dress them up to enjoy Eid, we wake up to carry women and children’s bodies from under rubble.”
Local resident Hassan Alkhor told media that the building belonged to the Abu Sharia family.
“May God hold the Israeli forces and (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu accountable,” he said.
The Times of Israel newspaper cited the Israeli military as saying that it had killed top Palestinian fighter Asaad Abu Sharia in the attack. Abu Sharia was the leader of the Mujahideen Brigades, who the military claimed had participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023.
Hamas confirmed the killing in a statement shared on Telegram, saying that Abu Sharia’s brother, Ahmed Abu Sharia, had also been assassinated in the attack, which it said was “part of a series of brutal massacres against civilians”.
‘A handful of rice for our starving children’
Also on Saturday, Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians waiting near an aid distribution site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Rafah in southern Gaza. The attack was the latest in a series of deadly incidents around the group’s operations that have killed 118 people and left others missing in less than two weeks.
Gaza resident Samir Abu Hadid told media that thousands of people had gathered at the al-Alam roundabout near the aid site.
“As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli
(forces) opened fire from armored vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,” Abu Hadid said.
One woman told media her husband had been killed in the attack after going to the aid point to get “a handful of rice for our starving children”.
“He said he felt he was walking towards death, I begged him not to leave. He insisted to find anything to feed our children,” she said.
The GHF, a shadowy United States-backed private group engaged by Israel to distribute aid under the protection of its troops and security contractors, began operations in late May, replacing existing networks run by the United Nations and charities that have worked for decades.
Critics say the group does not abide by humanitarian principles of neutrality, claiming that its operations weaponized aid, serving Israel’s stated aims of ethnically cleansing large swaths of Gaza and controlling the entire enclave.
Hamas told media that it had no knowledge of these “alleged threats”. (Int’l News Desk)
