Gaza: Eleven killed after Israeli fire on bus, according to civil defense

Gaza: Eleven people have died, all from the same family, after the bus they were in was hit by an Israeli tank shell in northern Gaza. This was reported by the BBC on its website on Saturday.

According to this source, the Abu Shaaban family was trying to return home to inspect it when the incident occurred on Friday evening in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

This is the most serious incident involving Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the ceasefire began eight days ago.

The Israeli army stated that its soldiers fired at a "suspicious vehicle" that crossed the yellow line, which marks the area still occupied by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers continue to operate in more than half of the Gaza Strip, in accordance with the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency that the victims were killed while they were "trying to check the state of their home" in the area.

According to civil defense, women and children are among the dead.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) indicated that a "suspicious vehicle" was spotted crossing the yellow line and approaching Israeli troops operating in northern Gaza on Friday, which led the soldiers to fire warning shots towards the vehicle.

The army clarified that the vehicle "continued to advance towards the troops in a manner that represented an imminent threat" and that "the soldiers opened fire to eliminate the threat, in accordance with the agreement."

Hamas, on its part, claimed that the family was targeted without justification.

The IDF warned Palestinians not to enter areas of Gaza still under their control.

With limited internet access, many Palestinians are unaware of the exact positions of Israeli troops, as the yellow demarcation line is not physically marked, and it remains uncertain whether the area where the bus was traveling had crossed it.

The BBC has asked the IDF to provide the exact coordinates of the incident.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated on Friday that the army would establish visual markers to indicate the location of the line.

In another development, Hamas handed over the body of Israeli hostage Eliyahu Margalit to the Red Cross on Friday, which was then repatriated to Israel.

Mr. Margalit is the tenth deceased hostage whose remains have been returned from Gaza. The bodies of 18 other individuals have yet to be repatriated.

For its part, Israel has returned the bodies of 15 additional Palestinians to Gaza officials through the Red Cross, according to the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry. This brings the total number of bodies received so far to 135.

Growing anger is being heard in Israel, with some blaming Hamas for not returning all the remains of the hostages as stipulated in last week's ceasefire agreement – a shortcoming that the United States downplays, stating it does not constitute a major violation.

The IDF reiterated that Hamas must "respect the agreement and take necessary measures to return all hostages."

Hamas, for its part, accuses Israel of making it difficult, pointing out that Israeli strikes have reduced many buildings to rubble and that the army is preventing the entry of heavy machinery necessary to search for the bodies of the hostages.

Under this ceasefire agreement negotiated by the United States, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners held in its jails and 1,718 individuals from Gaza.

Hamas, in turn, has returned the 20 remaining live hostages still held in Israel.

The Israeli army launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack, during which Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

Since then, at least 67,900 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the territory governed by Hamas, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

Source: BBC