Israeli airstrike kills 8 in Khan Younis

GAZA CITY — Gaza's civil defense on Sunday reported eight deaths, including four children, in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced people in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Israeli fighter jets targeted three tents housing dozens of displaced people overnight, killing "eight people, including four children aged 2 to 5 and two women", civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse.

The Israeli military, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce, did not immediately comment on the strike.

Video filmed by AFP shows rescuers in the dark evacuating bodies by ambulance, one of them in a white plastic body bag while the other was wrapped in a blanket, as well as a wounded baby.

Bassal said the Israeli military also destroyed five houses with explosives in the east of Gaza City, in the territory's north, and fired artillery at the Abassa area east of Khan Younis, without reporting any casualties.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that at least 2,701 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the conflict broke out to 52,810.

On Saturday, the armed wing of Hamas released a video showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling for an end to the conflict.

The pair were identified by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the conflict.

The undated three-minute video footage released by Hamas' Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades shows one of the hostages, 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.

The second hostage, Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew urging the Israeli government to end the conflict in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives.

In a statement, Bohbot's family said "Elkana and Yosef are crying out to be saved".

"While all the people of Israel hear their calls, a handful of decision-makers refuse to listen," the family said, echoing criticism of the Israeli government for failing to bring back the hostages.

Water crisis

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Water Authority warned on Saturday that the Gaza Strip is facing a water crisis and "dying of thirst" because of the near-total collapse of water and sanitation services.

Israeli military operations, widespread infrastructure damage, power outages, and restrictions on fuel and essential supplies have brought water services to a near standstill, it said.

The authority reported that 85 percent of water and sanitation facilities in the enclave have been severely damaged, leaving residents with an average of just 3 to 5 liters of water per person per day — well below the World Health Organization's minimum emergency standard of 15 liters.

It also warned of growing public health risks, citing the discharge of untreated wastewater into residential areas and the use of salty, undrinkable water by residents.

The authority accused Israel of violating international humanitarian law and called for an immediate halt to military operations, an end to "systematic occupation practices", the lifting of the blockade, and the protection of water sector workers.

Agencies - Xinhua