By Middle East Correspondent
London, (The Muslim News): Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least twelve Palestinians on Thursday, including several children, medical officials reported, marking a serious violation of the ceasefire that has largely held since October of last year. The violence also flared on Israel’s northern front, with airstrikes killing two people and hitting residential buildings in Lebanon.
The deadliest incident occurred in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. “We received five bodies, including a child, and dozens of wounded, many in critical condition,” said a medic at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an airstrike that levelled a family home. “The house was turned to dust. They were civilians, a family in their own home.” Shortly after, another attack in the same city killed two more people. A local resident, who gave only his first name, Ahmed, said, “The strike on the courtyard came without warning. There is no safe place.”
Earlier in the day, a Palestinian girl was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the northern town of Jabalia, an area ostensibly under ceasefire arrangements. A journalist on the ground reported that “artillery and air attacks continued across the enclave throughout Thursday, a steady drumbeat of violence that people here hoped had ended.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry updated the staggering toll from months of conflict. “The number of martyrs has risen to 71,441, with over 171,300 wounded since October 2023,” a Ministry statement read. “This ongoing aggression after the truce proves that the killing of our people has not stopped, only its scale has changed.”
Meanwhile, on Israel’s northern border, a parallel escalation unfolded as Israeli warplanes struck four residential buildings in eastern Lebanon. “The explosion shattered every window. They warned us to leave, but where are we to go?” said a witness in the town of Sohmor in the western Bekaa region, where two buildings were hit. Official sources in Lebanon confirmed further strikes on homes in Mashghara.
Israeli strikes have killed two people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in the latest violation of a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Public Health said an “Israeli enemy strike” on a vehicle in Mansuri in southern Lebanon had killed one person.
It also said that a strike on the southern town of Mayfadun killed one person the previous night. Israel said the victim of that attack was a Hezbollah member who it alleged “took part in attempts to reestablish Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the Zawtar al-Sharqiyah area”.
United Nations peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon on Friday sent a stop-fire request to the Israeli army after a drone “dropped a grenade” on its troops. It was unclear if the grenade exploded or not.
UNIFIL said such activities put both civilians and peacekeepers at risk and constitute a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
[Photo: Palestinian children, living around the courtyard of a school, struggle to continue their daily lives under harsh conditions at Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza city, Gaza on January 15, 2026. Families are struggling to survive under difficult humanitarian conditions. Photojournalist: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/AA]
