March 15 (UPI) — Israel on Saturday carried out airstrikes in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, killing at least nine people, including journalists, and wound several others, according to Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The death toll is the highest number of casualties in a single day since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas began in January.
Israeli Defense Force confirmed the strike of “two terrorists operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area” but not the deaths, the Times of Israel reported.
Then a little later, “a number of additional terrorists collected the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle,” the military said.
The operatives that collected the equipment were targeted in a second strike, the IDF said.
The Gaza Health Ministry also described what happened.
“Nine people were martyred and several injured, including critical cases, were brought to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza following the ongoing Israeli aggression on the strip,” the ministry said in a statement.
Fares Awad, head of emergency services in northern Gaza, identified one of the dead as Mahmoud Islim, a local reporter operating a drone.
People in the car were on a mission for a charity called Al-Khair Foundation in Beit Lahia, with journalists and photographers accompanying them.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center said three journalists on a media team documenting relief efforts in northern Gaza were killed.
The organization said in a statement that “the targeting of journalists prevents the world from being exposed to the truth about what is happening in Gaza. … This assault constitutes a war crime that violates press freedom and endangers media and aid workers.”
Hamas called the attack a “horrific massacre” and “a continuation” of Israeli “war crimes against our people and a dangerous escalation that reflects its insistence on continuing its aggression and disregard for all international laws and conventions.”
Hamas added: “This criminal escalation, accompanied by deliberate killings and barbaric shelling across the Gaza Strip, reaffirms the occupation’s intention to undermine the ceasefire agreement and its deliberate sabotage of any opportunity to complete the implementation of the agreement and exchange prisoners, in blatant defiance of the mediators and the international community.”
The Palestinian group also called on the mediators to pressure Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward with a cease-fire and prisoner exchange it proposed.
Hamas said it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements their cease-fire agreement. They called that an “exceptional deal.”
Phase one of the cease-fire ended March 1.
Israel released 1,135 prisoners over the course of six exchanges since the first phase of the cease-fire began Jan. 25. Hamas has set 25 living Israeli hostages free.
On Friday, Netanyahu claimed Hamas was manipulating hostage release talks with “psychological warfare” by refusing to release more living hostages.
A hostage release plan proposed by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would have freed 10 living hostages. Hamas has refused the proposal, which would create a new cease-fire lasting until April 20.
The next phase of the Israel-Hamas talks is supposed to reach agreements on Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza and ending the comprehensive war against Hamas in return for release of all remaining living hostages and a Palestinian prisoner release.
Al Jazeera reported Israeli drones have been hovering above Rafah city.
On Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry said 19 were killed and 26 sent to hospitals with wounds during the past 48 hours.
This brought the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, to at least 48,543, with 111,981 others wounded, the ministry added.
