Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill 32 despite ongoing ceasefire

Israeli air strikes killed 32 people including children in Gaza on Saturday according to the Palestinian territorys civil defence agency as the military said it had attacked in response to a Hamas ceasefire violationDespite a USbrokered truce entering its second phase earlier this month violence in the Palestinian territory has continued with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the agreementThe latest bloodshed comes after Israel announced it would reopen the crucial Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday for the limited movement of peopleThe death toll since dawn today has risen to 32 most of them children and women said the civil defence agency a rescue force operating under the Hamas authority updating an earlier toll of 28Residential apartments tents shelters and a police station were targeted agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in the statementA unit in an apartment building of Gaza Citys Rimal neighbourhood was left entirely destroyed and blood spatters were visible on the street below an AFP journalist reportedThree girls died while they were sleeping We found their bodies in the street Samer alAtbash a relative of the family told AFPWhat truce are you talking about Everyone is deceiving everyone else added Nael alAtbash another relativeOne strike hit the police station in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City the territorys largest urban centreGazas general police directorate said seven people were killed in that attack while Bassal said the dead included four female police officersCeasefire violationsAbout a dozen first responders rushed to the devastated building and pulled bodies from the rubble an AFP journalist reportedAnother Israeli attack hit a shelter in AlMawasi an area of south Gaza where tens of thousands of displaced Gazans live in tents and makeshift shelters an AFP journalist reportedLarge plumes of smoke rose above the thousands of densely pitched tentsThe number of casualties from this strike was still not knownAlthough people have been killed almost daily in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire on October 10 Saturdays toll was particularly highIsraels military said that the air strikes were retaliation for an incident on Friday in which eight Palestinian fighters exited a tunnel in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza which it said violated the fragile ceasefireIt said forces struck four commanders and additional terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations across the Gaza StripHamas political bureau member Suhail alHindi rejected the militarys claimsWhat happened today is a fully fledged crime committed by a criminal enemy that does not abide by agreements or respect any commitments he told AFPThe health ministry which operates under the Hamas authority has said Israeli attacks have killed at least 509 people in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effectIsraels military says four soldiers have been killed in the same period in Gaza in suspected militant attacksRafah reopeningMedia restrictions and limited access in Gaza have meant that AFP has been unable to independently verify casualty figures or freely cover the violenceKey mediators Egypt and Qatar condemned what they said were Israeli violations of the ceasefireEgypt demanded that all parties exercise the utmost restraint ahead of Sundays reopening of Rafah crossing while Qatar said it denounced the repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefireThe violence was a dangerous escalation that will inflame the situation and undermine regional and international efforts aimed at consolidating the truce the Qatari foreign ministry saidIsrael has said reopening of the Rafah crossing will only allow the limited movement of peopleThe reopening is a key element in the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreementIsrael had previously expressed its unwillingness to reopen the gateway until it received the remains of Ran Gvili the last hostage to be held in Gaza who was recovered earlier this week and laid to rest in Israel on WednesdayThe Gaza war was sparked by Hamass October 7 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1221 people according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figuresIsraels retaliation flattened much of Gaza which was already suffering from previous rounds of fighting and from an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007The twoyear war has left at least 71769 people dead in Gaza according to the health ministry whose figures are considered reliable by the United NationsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever