THE Israeli military has bombed a warehouse sheltering displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of central Gaza, killing 15 members of one family, including nine children.
The civil defence spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, said on Saturday that 15 people killed in the overnight attack were members of the al-Ejlah family, with three women among the dead. The total death toll from the attack was 16.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said three Israeli missiles hit the warehouse, located a few kilometres south of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
“A massive fire broke out, burning everything in the warehouse as children were torn to pieces. Rescue efforts are still continuing to try to recover more bodies,” he said.
“There is a great level of frustration and grief. The bodies are now being lined up at Al-Aqsa Hospital’s morgue as the family gets ready to bury them.”
The attack killed the family’s patriarch, Sami, along with his wife, mother and all of his children, according to Abdalhadi al-Ejlah, a cousin of the victims.
Al-Ejlah told Al Jazeera from Stockholm, Sweden, that Sami was an “honourable man” who ran a small business in the frozen meat industry and was active in charitable efforts, stressing that the family was not involved in politics.
He added that the family had fled Gaza City to the az-Zawayda warehouse, which Sami owned and used for his business.
“We are talking [about] literally a gradual genocide, a slow motion genocide, not only by killing, but also using other tools … including scarcity of food,” al-Ejlah said of the overall situation in Gaza, which he described as “hell on earth”.
The attack took place after international mediators – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – wrapped up ceasefire negotiations in Doha on Friday that they described as “serious and constructive”.
The talks are aimed at ending the war and seeing the release of Israeli captives in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel.
