Israeli Airstrike in Southern Gaza Claims Lives of Nine, Including Six Children

Nine people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Gaza, according to hospital authorities, including six children.

According to Gaza’s civil defence, the strike hit a residential building late yesterday in a western suburb in the city of Rafah, where Israel has repeatedly said it will target remaining Hamas militants.

Abu Yousef al Najjar Hospital’s records show the bodies of the six children, two women and a man were taken there.

Relatives cried and hugged the bodies of the children, wrapped in white shrouds, at the hospital.

Among those killed were Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children, his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum said.

Mr Barhoum also lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter, Alaa.

“This is a world devoid of all human values and morals,” Mr Barhoum told The Associated Press on Saturday morning, crying as he held Alaa’s body in his arms.

“They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. There were no martyrs but women and children.”

No casualties have been reported from a second alleged overnight strike in the city.

Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, currently hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population of about 2.3 million people, the vast majority of whom were displaced by fighting further north.

Despite calls for restraint, including from staunch ally the US, Israel has insisted for months it intends to push on into the city, where it says many Hamas militants are located.

(Skynews)