A Palestinian walks over debris and rubble while carrying wooden planks collected to be used as firewood, in the al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on Aug. 14, 2025, after more than 22 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)
Local Civil Defense reported on Saturday that 22 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by over 22 months of war.
Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that a neighborhood in northern Gaza City, in the besieged and starving Palestinian territory, has been under intense bombardment for nearly a week. “We estimate that over 50,000 people remain in the Zeitoun neighborhood, most without water or food,” he said, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in Zeitoun and the neighboring Tal al-Hawa district. “Our teams do not have access to the injured.”
According to Bassal, 22 Palestinians, including several children, were killed by Israeli army fire and strikes in Gaza.
Among them, nine Palestinians were killed near two humanitarian aid distribution centers in the south and north of the territory, he specified. Six others, including three children, died in two strikes on the Bureij refugee camp (central Gaza) and the al-Mawassi area (south).
The spokesperson, as he has been doing for nearly a week, expressed alarm over Israeli army operations in Gaza City. “The residents have nowhere to take shelter. The situation is catastrophic.”
Ghassan Kashko, 40, a resident of Gaza City, lives with his family in a school sheltering other displaced people. “We have forgotten what sleep is. Airstrikes and tank fire never stop… We no longer have food or drinking water,” he told AFP by phone.
A source at the Gaza Interior Ministry said that “the occupier continues a ground military operation in the Zeitoun and Tal al-Hawa areas.” The Israeli army has destroyed “dozens of houses and roads,” according to the source.
Israel has stated that it is preparing to take control of Gaza City and nearby refugee camps with the stated goal of defeating Hamas and rescuing hostages abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, during the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel that triggered the war.
On Friday, the army confirmed that its troops were conducting a series of operations on the outskirts of Gaza City, where residents have reported intense strikes and ground incursions for several days.
The Oct. 7 attack killed 1,219 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed at least 61,722 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, a figure considered reliable by the U.N.
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