Israeli Strikes Gaza City — Israeli aircraft struck at least four residential buildings across Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday, killing at least 11 Palestinians — among them women, children, and a senior Hamas commander — and wounding dozens more in a pre-dawn assault that sent shockwaves through several densely populated neighbourhoods.
Three Israeli helicopters were observed hovering along Gaza City’s coastline before launching simultaneous strikes on buildings in the Sheikh Radwan and Tel al-Hawa neighbourhoods and the Shati refugee camp. The explosions were powerful enough to trigger widespread panic among residents still sheltering in the area.
Hassan Labad, identified as a Hamas commander, was killed in the strikes along with his wife and three of his children. Two of those children had disabilities, according to a spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, which confirmed that three women were among the overall dead. Medical sources and eyewitnesses corroborated the casualty figures.
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The strikes come despite a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last October. Israel has continued conducting military operations in Gaza, citing what it describes as Hamas’s efforts to rearm and reconstitute its forces under the cover of the truce. Since the ceasefire began, more than 940 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel has also announced plans to expand the area of Gaza under its direct military control to as much as 70 percent of the territory — a move that has drawn international concern and further complicated diplomatic efforts to stabilise the enclave.
The broader conflict was ignited by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has, according to the territory’s health ministry, killed more than 72,950 people over the course of the war.
The latest strikes underscore the fragility of the ceasefire arrangement and the deepening humanitarian toll on Gaza’s civilian population. Residential buildings in multiple neighbourhoods have repeatedly been targeted in Israeli operations, raising persistent questions about the protection of non-combatants in one of the world’s most densely populated urban environments.
Israeli Strikes Gaza City: Regional Implications
Internationally, scrutiny of the conflict continues to intensify. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong stated her belief that Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted and abused Australian women following a recent Gaza flotilla incident, adding a further diplomatic dimension to already strained relations between Israel and several Western governments.
With no firm timeline for renewed negotiations and Israel pressing ahead with both military strikes and territorial expansion plans, the prospect of a durable end to hostilities remains distant. Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that the cumulative impact of the campaign — on infrastructure, medical facilities, and civilian life — has pushed Gaza to the edge of collapse.
