Gaza civil defence says 22 killed in Israeli strikes

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GAZA CITY - Israeli air strikes killed 22 people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including women and children, according to the territory's civil defence agency, updating an earlier toll.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire 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 truce agreement.

The latest violence comes as Israel announced it would reopen the crucial Rafa crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday, a key demand by humanitarian organisations.

"The death toll in the Gaza Strip from Israeli air strikes since dawn on Saturday has risen to 22, most of them women and children, with others still trapped under the rubble," the civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under the Hamas authority, said in a statement.

"Residential apartments, tents, shelters and a police station were targeted, resulting in this humanitarian catastrophe," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in the statement.

One strike hit the police station in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, the territory's largest urban centre.

Gaza's general police directorate said seven people were killed in that attack.

"The killed included police officers and personnel as well as civilians who were present at the station at the time of the strike to follow up on their cases," the directorate said in a statement.

In another attack, Israeli forces hit a shelter in Al-Mawasi, an area of south Gaza where tens of thousands of displaced Gazans have set up tents and makeshift shelters, an AFP journalist reported.

The number of casualties from this strike was still not known.

Although people have been killed almost daily in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire on October 10, Saturday's toll was particularly high.

Ceasefire violations

An Israeli military source told AFP that "in response to Hamas' blatant violations of the ceasefire agreement, several air strikes were conducted overnight".

The source did not offer details about the strikes.

Gaza health ministry general director Munir al-Barsh told AFP after the initial toll of 11 was reported Saturday that 11 more people were killed and 20 wounded "as a result of strikes carried out by the occupation targeting civilians in a tent and an apartment" in Gaza City and in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Israel "continues its serious violations of the ceasefire agreement amid a severe shortage of medical supplies, medicines and medical equipment", Barsh added.

The health ministry, which operates under the Hamas authority, has said that Israeli attacks have killed at least 509 people in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect.

Israel's military says four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period in Gaza in suspected militant attacks.

Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have meant that AFP has been unable to independently verify casualty figures or freely cover all the violence.

Meanwhile, Israel has said Sunday's reopening of the Rafah crossing will be only for the "limited movement of people".

The reopening is a key element in the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Israel 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 Wednesday.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The Israeli retaliation flattened much of Gaza, which was already suffering from previous rounds of fighting and from an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007.

The two-year war has left at least 71,769 people dead in Gaza, according to the health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.