Reports are coming in of many casualties and injuries following an Israeli army bombardment on shelters housing displaced Palestinian families in the Al Zawaida area of Gaza.

"DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israel airstrike in Gaza killed at least 18 people, all from the same family, on Saturday, hours after mediators expressed optimism for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas after 10 months of war. Saturday’s airstrike hit a house and an adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to the town of Zawaida, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.

Among those killed was Sami Jawad al Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children, ages 2 to 22, and the children’s grandmother, according to a list provided by the hospital.

“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbor. More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time, he said.

The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it hit “terrorist infrastructure” in central Gaza from where rockets had been fired toward Israel in recent weeks."

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-08-17/an-israeli-airstrike-kills-18-members-of-a-family-in-gaza-as-mediators-hope-for-a-cease-fire