Israeli strikes kill 30 in Gaza, including rescue service official and local journalist

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a senior rescue service official and a journalist, local health authorities said.

The latest deaths in the Israeli campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.

Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory's civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda's death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 220.

Israel's military said in a statement that chief of staff Eyal Zamir visited troops in Khan Younis on Sunday, telling them that "this is not an endless war" and that Hamas has lost most of its assets, including its command and control.

"We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas and dismantle its rule," Zamir was cited as saying.

The statement did not address Sunday's strikes.

Later on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC said in a statement that two of its staff - Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal - had been killed in a strike on a house in Khan Younis on Saturday.

"Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza. The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian relief, and civil defence personnel," the ICRC statement added.

In a separate statement, the Gaza media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77% of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes.

The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.

On Friday the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers. 

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

The conflict has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by David Goodman and Hugh Lawson)