Eleven people, all from the same family, have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run civil defence. Officials said the victims died when an Israeli tank shell hit their bus in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday night.
The family had been travelling to inspect their damaged home when the shell struck, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. He identified the victims as members of the Abu Shaaban family, including women and children.
Authorities described the attack as the deadliest single incident involving Israeli soldiers since the start of the ceasefire eight days ago.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that its soldiers fired on what they called a “suspicious vehicle” that had crossed the yellow line—the boundary marking the area still under Israeli control in northern Gaza.
In a statement, the IDF said troops fired “warning shots” after spotting the vehicle approaching their position. When the vehicle continued to advance, posing an “imminent threat,” soldiers “opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the army would soon install visible signs to indicate the location of the yellow line to prevent further incidents.
Under the current ceasefire arrangement, Israeli soldiers continue to operate in more than half of the Gaza Strip, as part of the first phase of the agreement.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo announced that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza will reopen on Monday. The crossing will allow Palestinian residents in Egypt to return home.
The ceasefire deal also includes the exchange of bodies. On Friday, Hamas released the body of Israeli hostage Eliyahu Margalit to the Red Cross, which later transferred it to Israel. In return, Israel handed over 15 Palestinian bodies to Gaza officials, bringing the total number of bodies received by the Hamas-run health ministry to 135.
There has been growing anger in Israel over Hamas’s failure to return all the dead hostages’ bodies, as required under the ceasefire. However, the United States has played down concerns that this constitutes a breach of the agreement.
The IDF has urged Hamas to “uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the hostages.” Hamas, however, blames Israel for obstructing the process by continuing to restrict the entry of heavy machinery into Gaza, equipment it says is essential for retrieving bodies from collapsed buildings.
The Israeli military campaign began after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack, in which militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages.
Since then, at least 67,900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli operations in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations continues to treat those figures as credible.
