Even as Palestinian residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip gathered to mark the holy Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israeli military operations did not pause, with local authorities documenting thousands of breaches of a months-old nominal truce.
The most high-profile strike of the holiday period hit a multi-story residential building in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighborhood, carried out overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Al Jazeera reports that as of initial casualty counts, six people have been confirmed dead in the attack.
Israeli military officials have confirmed the strike targeted Mohammed Odeh, the recently appointed leader of Hamas’s armed wing, who stepped into the role in mid-May following the death of his predecessor Izz al-Din al-Haddad. The killing of Odeh has not received official confirmation from Hamas as of Wednesday, but an anonymous Hamas source speaking to Agence France-Presse confirmed that Odeh’s wife and two children were also killed in the air raid, and that a formal funeral procession would be held Wednesday afternoon in central Gaza City.
The targeted strike is just one of thousands of truce violations that have occurred since a tentative ceasefire agreement first took effect in October, according to data from the Gaza Government Media Office. The office’s official statement released Wednesday pegs total confirmed violations at 3,005, with actions ranging from large-scale aerial bombings and deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure to widespread home demolitions, repeated ground incursions into residential neighborhoods and ongoing small-arms fire against civilian populations.
Since the truce was signed, the ongoing Israeli operations have left a devastating toll on Gaza’s civilian population: more than 910 non-combatant Palestinians have been killed, another 2,747 have suffered injuries, and 82 additional people have been detained or abducted by Israeli forces during incursions into the enclave.
Compounding the humanitarian crisis, Israeli border restrictions have continued to block the vast majority of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with more than 64 percent of all scheduled relief shipments denied entry as of this week. The blocked shipments include critical lifesaving supplies: food, clean drinking water, pharmaceutical products, fuel for medical generators and other basic necessities that Gaza’s population already suffers acute shortages of.
Local media reports, citing sources in Gaza’s overstretched health system, note that more than 12 additional people have been killed across the enclave in Israeli strikes over the 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning. Beyond the al-Rimal strike, Israeli forces launched new operations at dawn Wednesday: airstrikes hit areas east of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, while artillery shelling was reported in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
This reporting is part of independent coverage from Middle East Eye, which specializes in on-the-ground reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region.