Sisters, 10 and 12, killed by Israeli fire in Gaza

Leaning over the body of his 12-year-old daughter, Rami Essam Abu Jamea kissed her on the cheek.

“Wake up,” he asked little Rima as tears welled up in her eyes. “Who will bring me water now? »

He then turned and kissed his 10-year-old daughter, Rahaf, who had also been killed, according to video filmed for NBC News on Wednesday.

“My daughters are gone,” Abu Jamea, 44, shouted to the crowd gathered around him at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Between fits of tears and devastated silences, he declared to the crowd that the sisters were killed by an Israeli missile that struck near the family tent in Al-Mawasi camp.

When his wife, Sanaa Abdullah Buwaid, joined him soon after, the couple embraced for a long time and cried after losing what Abu Jamea said were their only children.

The sisters were among 23 Palestinians killed in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them women and children, according to hospital officials.

The Israeli army said it struck Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza after militants fired on its soldiers in the north of the Strip, seriously injuring one of them. The troops, it said in a statement, were to the east, on the Israeli-controlled side, of the “yellow line” – the border that the country’s army marked with concrete blocks of that color to demarcate it from the 53% of Gaza it still controls.

Armored units and the country’s air force carried out “strikes in the area”, the statement added. The injured Israeli soldier was evacuated to a hospital and his family was informed, according to the statement.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas commander who led the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the worst-hit communities, on October 7, 2023.

“Before and during the strike, measures were taken to mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible, including the use of surveillance and precise munitions,” the statement added. “The Israeli military regrets any harm caused to uninvolved civilians.”

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said it had “eliminated” another militant it said killed Corporal Noa Marciano, who served in the IDF’s Combat Intelligence Gathering Corps, while in Hamas captivity.

Meanwhile, at least 11 people, most of them from the same family, were killed in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Tuffah, the Associated Press cited a Shifa hospital official as saying. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old daughter, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother, the AP reported.

The nearly two dozen people killed Wednesday were the latest Palestinian casualties since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct. 10, with more than 520 dead since then, according to the Health Ministry of the enclave that is still nominally run by Hamas.

Although the most intense fighting has subsided in Gaza, it has been marred by repeated outbreaks despite the truce.

“Bombing and airstrikes continue, targeting homes and civilian areas,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said in a phone call. Selmiya is the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, located in the north of the enclave.

The Israeli military has repeatedly said its strikes were a response to Hamas ceasefire violations or militant attacks on its soldiers.

Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and Qatar, recently condemned what they called “repeated violations” of the deal by Israel.

Other key elements of the deal appear to be stalled, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza, none of which have been given a timetable for their conclusion.

But while sporadic fighting continues, other parts of the ceasefire agreement have made progress.

Hamas returned all the hostages it held – alive and dead – and Israel released several thousand Palestinian prisoners. Additionally, an increasing amount of food and humanitarian aid has been allowed into the enclave.

The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt partially reopened on Monday, allowing some movement of people in and out of the Palestinian enclave and allowing a small number of people in need of medical help to leave for treatment. Others were allowed to return to the territory.

The reopening is a key pillar of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and comes just days after the remains of the last hostage held in the enclave were returned to Israel.

Nearly 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not specify how many were combatants or civilians.

The war began on October 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and left 251 people hostage.