Jerusalem, Dec 18: An Israeli strike in Gaza killed at least eight people from the same family, most of them women and children, Palestinian medics said Tuesday.
The strike late Monday hit a house in Gaza City’s central neighbourhood of Daraj, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
Among the bodies recovered from the rubble were a father and his three children, and the children’s grandmother, according to a casualty list obtained by The Associated Press. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
Israeli bombardment and offensives in Gaza have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians over the past 14 months, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says more than of half the dead were women and children.
Israel launched its campaign in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others, around 100 of whom remain in captivity.
British diplomats have met the leader of the militant group that toppled Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
Photographs posted by the group on social media showed senior officials, including the UK special representative for Syria, Ann Snow, meeting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Mohammed al-Golani, in Damascus on Monday.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed Monday that Britain had sent “a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new Syrian authorities and members of civil society groups.”
Britain, along with the US and other countries, classifies HTS, a former al-Qaida affiliate, as a terrorist organisation. UK officials have suggested they may reconsider that designation, but have not given a timeline. They say British officials can still talk to HST in the meantime.
In an interview with the Times of London newspaper, Al-Sharaa urged the West to lift sanctions and said Israel should stop its strikes on Syria.
“We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks,” he was quoted as saying. “The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions.”