Gaza health officials say 10 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza's civil defence and hospitals said Israeli attacks have killed 10 people across the territory, among them three children and their parents.

A ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, but it has not halted the violence in Gaza, and efforts to secure a lasting agreement to end the war have stalled.

A family of five - three children and their parents - were killed when an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in northwest Gaza City, according to the territory's civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas.

"The family's only surviving member is one child, who was not inside the house at the time of the strike," Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told AFP.

Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital confirmed it had received the five bodies.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said a strike had been carried out in Gaza City on Saturday "targeting a Hamas terrorist".

She said the military was still assessing the results.

Gaza resident Mousa Al-Aimawi said the strike came without warning.

"Suddenly there was a missile hitting the building. No one knew, no one, no warning, nothing," he told AFP.
"They hit it without caring that there are civilians, children, women, girls."

Mohammed Kali, who lives in the same building, said he saw several people lying on the ground.

"There were bodies scattered on the ground - women and children dead, and elderly people too," he said.
AFP footage from the scene showed large sections of the building's facade torn away, as rescue teams helped the wounded.

Onlookers picked through shattered concrete blocks and twisted metal, searching for any belongings that could be salvaged.

Three more people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a group of civilians in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, the agency reported.

Al-Shifa hospital confirmed it had received the three bodies.

Health officials said two other people were killed elsewhere in Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The military did not offer an immediate comment on those attacks.

Violence has persisted despite the ceasefire.

Before Friday's casualties, at least 1,144 Palestinians had been killed since the truce took effect last October, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli military says it has lost five soldiers in Gaza over the same period, as well as one civilian contractor.

Restrictions imposed on media outlets and limited access in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying tolls or freely covering the violence there.

Palestinian teen footballer dies after Israeli settler shooting

A 17-year-old Palestinian footballer died a week after he was shot and injured during an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to officials and relatives.

Dozens of mourners dressed in black carried the body of Fadi Hamdallah al-Nassan - a player for Al-Mughayyir Club and a member of the Palestinian national youth team - from the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah to his village for burial.

The Palestine Football Association accused Israeli forces of shooting Nassan while settlers were attacking the village on 11 July.

The young player was reportedly shot in the thigh during the attack. His leg was amputated, but he later died from his injuries, the association said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"He loved football," his father, Hamdallah Al-Nassan said.

"When the settlers attacked, he heard the screams of the girls and women," he said. "He went to the scene of the attack and was killed."

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported details of the incident in which Nasser was wounded and the amputation of his leg, adding that two other residents were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces, and 10-year-old boy was also hit on the head by a stun grenade.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the United Nations has reported a sharp increase in violence attributed to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,088 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023, including both militants and civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.

Official Israeli figures show that at least 46 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

Israeli rule change clears way for using crocodiles to deter prison breaks

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has reclassified crocodiles from wild animals to "captive-bred wildlife", a move that clears the way for the reptiles to be used for security purposes, including to deter prison escapes.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir - who reportedly proposed in December surrounding a prison for Palestinian detainees with crocodiles, à la Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility - welcomed the decision.

"Are you thinking of attempting to escape? Think again," Mr Gvir wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, alongside an AI-generated image of himself with a crocodile on a leash.

The caption read: "Ministers Ben Gvir and Silman are cooperating and encircling prisons with crocodiles!"

Israel's Channel 13 reported that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority had opposed Ben Gvir's proposal when he first floated the idea last year.

The reclassification transfers oversight of the animals from the authority to a "security body". The Israel Prison Service, which Ben Gvir runs, is one such body.

The regulation, signed into law on Wednesday, stipulates that Nile crocodiles may be bred provided that "they are held by a security body... under conditions determined by the Director (of the Nature and Parks Authority) to prevent their release into the wild, and subject to the Minister of Environmental Protection determining that their possession is required for security purposes".

Israeli media reported that Mr Gvir intends to deploy crocodiles around Ketziot prison in southern Israel.

Channel 13 said Mr Gvir's proposal was initially "met with ridicule by several officers" at the Israel Prison Service when he raised it last year.