Eyewitnesses: 20 Killed, Including 16 children, in Israeli Shelling of Rafah
(Arab World Press) - At least 20 people, all of them women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah, southern Gaza, as the war on the Strip continues into its seventh month, Palestinian eyewitnesses said on Sunday.
The Israeli army has escalated its airstrikes and artillery shelling on various areas of Gaza, particularly in the south, where Palestinian civil defense authorities announced recovering the bodies of at least 50 civilians from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as a result of shelling raids in the past few hours.
Abu Mohamed Abdel-Aal, a relative of the inhabitants of the house bombarded in Rafah, said in statements to the Arab World Press (AWP), “This was a house full of women and children. There are 20 martyrs – 16 children and 4 women. This is surreal.”
Hussein Mahmoud Abdel-Aal, also a relative of the victims, said, “This is our house. It was the house of my sister, cousins and brothers. Last night at about 10:00 p.m. we heard a drone, then missiles hit the house.”
He continued, “Dust filled the place. We kept searching for the children and recovering their bodies from under the debris. My niece, her children and my nephew were all dead. Many children were killed. What was their sin, the beloved of God… what was their sin?”
Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that the number of fatalities from Israel’s sustained war since October 7 has risen to 34,079, in addition to 76,980 wounded.