26 Palestinians killed in latest wave of Israeli bombings on Gaza
Strikes on residential areas and displacement camps in Gaza have wiped out entire families and raised alarms over escalating attacks on civilians amid worsening humanitarian conditions.
At least 26 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in a series of Israeli air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip. The attacks targeted residential buildings and shelters housing forcibly displaced families in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis.
Our correspondent, the bombardment intensified in the early hours, striking multiple densely populated areas. Casualties were reported in several neighborhoods, with a number of those killed being women and children.
Among the victims was Yousef al-Zaq, a figure whose life came to symbolize the enduring struggle of the Palestinian people. He was killed when an airstrike struck his family’s apartment on Al-Thawra Street in central Gaza.
Born in 2008 inside Israeli prisons, Yousef was once recognized as the youngest prisoner in the world; a child whose first breath was taken behind bars, beside his detained mother, Fatima al-Zaq. Their story captured international attention at the time. Both were eventually released, but Yousef’s life, marked from the start by occupation and resistance, ended under the same shadow that defined his birth.
His death has resonated widely, highlighting the generational toll of the war on Palestinian families.
Four martyrs in Israeli strike
In western Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed in a strike on a building that housed displaced individuals. Another strike targeted the home of the al-Safadi family on Yafa Street, resulting in the deaths of three people.
In a separate incident, four Palestinians were killed near the Islamic University gate when a tent sheltering them was hit. Three others were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood after a strike struck a residential apartment.
Concurrently, a new massacre unfolded in the al-Manasra displacement camp in Deir al-Balah, where Sohaib al-Qarinawi, his wife, and their children were all killed when their tent was bombed. These attacks come amid a deepening humanitarian crisis, as tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians remain without safe shelter, frequently targeted in places once considered refuge.
UN: Nearly 800 killed near Gaza aid sites
On a related note, the UN human rights office reported on Friday that it has documented at least 798 Palestinian fatalities linked to aid distribution points in Gaza, including those operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), as well as sites near humanitarian convoys run by other relief agencies, including the United Nations.
The UN, however, has strongly criticized this parallel framework, calling it “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles.
The GHF, which began “distributing aid” in late May, relies on private US logistics and security contractors to deliver supplies into Gaza, bypassing the UN-coordinated aid system that “Israel” has accused of being vulnerable to diversion by Palestinian Resistance groups.
“Up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), during a press briefing in Geneva.
