CAIRO   -  An Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia on Sunday killed Mohammad Morsi, deputy director of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service in the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, and four of his family, health officials said. The Civil Emergency Service said in a statement that Morsi’s death raised to 83 the number of its members killed by Israeli fire since Oct. 7.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on Morsi’s death. Residents said Israeli forces had also blown up several houses in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City 5 km from Jabalia. Medical teams said they were unable to answer desperate calls by some of the residents who had reported being trapped inside their houses, some wounded.

“We hear constant bombing in Zeitoun, we know they are blowing up houses there, we don’t sleep because of the sounds of explosions, the roaring of tanks sound close and the drones don’t stop circling,” said one resident of Gaza City, who lives around 1 km away. Israel and Hamas continued to blame one another for the failure of mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the US, to broker a ceasefire. The US is preparing to present a new proposal, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear dim as gaps between the sides’ positions remain large.

Meanwhile on Sunday the United Nations, in collaboration with local health authorities, extended by a day a campaign to vaccinate children in the southern Gaza Strip against polio before it moves on Monday to the north.

Separately, a gunman from Jordan killed three Israeli civilians at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the occupied West Bank before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. It was the first attack of its kind along the border with Jordan since Oct. 7, when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas carried out an assault on southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza that has escalated throughout the region.

The attack took place in a commercial cargo area under Israeli control where Jordanian trucks offload cargo entering the West Bank, officials said. The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, lies about midway between Amman and Jerusalem just north of the Dead Sea.

The assailant was a 39-year-old truck driver who came from the influential Huwaitat tribe in southern Jordan, according to family members.

“A terrorist approached the area of the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in a truck, exited the truck, and opened fire at the Israeli security forces operating at the bridge,” the Israeli military said.

“The terrorist was eliminated by the security forces, three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack.” Jordan was investigating the shooting and a Jordanian official said the crossing has been closed.