Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories - Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Saturday killed 15 members of a Palestinian family, including nine children and three women. The strike hit the home of the Ajlah family in Al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. “The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead,” Bassal said. Bassal gave a list of those killed, including nine children and three women.
The Israeli military told AFP that during the night its forces had struck “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza from which rockets were being fired towards Israel. “Reports were received that as a result of the strike, civilians in an adjacent structure were killed.
The incident is under review,” it said in a statement.
A witness said the strike took place shortly after midnight (2100 GMT Friday).
“Three rockets hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul told AFP as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble of the flattened house.
“There were a lot of children and women inside... What have they done to deserve this?”
AFPTV footage of the aftermath, captured after dawn, showed rescuers searching for bodies under piles of collapsed concrete blocks.
More than 10 months of war between Israel and Hamas has left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins.
