The Israeli military launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least six people including an Al Jazeera cameraman and a child, health officials and rescuers confirmed, BBC News reported. The Qatar-based network strongly condemned the killing of its correspondent Ahmed Wishah, who died during a strike on a residential home in the central Bureij refugee camp. Conversely, the Israel Defense Forces accused Wishah of being a Hamas sniper operative, alleging he had advanced attack plans against troops without providing concrete evidence. According to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures are verified by the United Nations, the Israeli military has killed 1,007 people since a ceasefire agreement took effect last October.
Al Jazeera stated that the death of Wishah represents a flagrant violation of international laws and reflects a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing journalists. The strike on the Bureij camp also claimed the lives of two other individuals whom the military accused of being Hamas members. Wishah`s brother, Mohamed Wishah, who was also an Al Jazeera correspondent, was previously killed in an Israeli strike in April. Meanwhile, in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, an overnight strike hit a home at approximately 02:00 local time, killing four family members including two women and a child. Officials at Al-Shifa Hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of the victims from the Sabra attack.
What remains unclear is whether the fragile ceasefire will completely collapse as both Israel and Palestinian armed groups continue to trade accusations of violations. Relatives of the Sabra victims stated that the family had no affiliation with Hamas and consisted entirely of innocent civilians. Fresh military strikes were also reported across southern and northern regions of the enclave, compounding the severe humanitarian crisis. United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher informed the Security Council that while extreme hunger has dropped since the ceasefire, 70 percent of the population still lacks proper shelter. Fletcher emphasized that essential services are on the brink of total collapse, leaving Palestinians deprived of clean water, healthcare, and education.
The original ceasefire framework required Hamas to disarm and relinquish its governance role, conditions that have yet to be fulfilled while a diplomatic technocrat committee attempts to oversee administration. Concurrently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to expand its territorial control to 70 percent of Gaza. The broader conflict initiated on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Since that date, Israeli military operations have killed more than 73,000 people in Gaza, according to official health data.
