UNRWA says Gaza has become a \u2018graveyard\u2019 as Israel continues its bombing campaign amid worsening living conditions
\n Gaza Strip
\nAn Israeli air strike has killed 12 members of a family, including seven children, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defence rescue agency has reported.
\nA video posted by the agency on its Telegram channel on Friday evening showed its staff retrieving victims from under the rubble of the Khallah family home in Jabalia.
\n\u201cAll of the martyrs are from the same family, including seven children, the oldest aged six,\u201d civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency. Basal added that the air raid injured 15 other people.
\nThe Israeli army told AFP it had struck \u201cseveral terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area\u201d.
\n\u201cAccording to an initial examination, the reported number of casualties resulting from the strike does not align with the information held by the IDF,\u201d it added.
\nPope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as \u201ccruelty\u201d. \u201cYesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to say it because it touches my heart.\u201d
\nIsrael continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday, more than 14 months into its assault on Gaza.
\nTrapped in a \u2018graveyard\u2019
\nGaza has become a \u201cgraveyard\u201d as heavy winter rains, hunger, dire living conditions and ongoing hostilities continue to endanger lives, UNRWA (the United Nations\u2019 Palestinian refugee agency) Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge warned on Friday.
\n\u201cAn entire society here is now a graveyard \u2026 Over two million people are trapped,\u201d she said, speaking from the Nuseirat camp.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s impossible for families to shelter in these conditions,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people are living under fabric, they don\u2019t even have waterproof structures and 69 percent of the buildings here have been damaged or destroyed. There\u2019s absolutely nowhere for people to shelter from these elements.\u201d
\nUNRWA provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
\nIsraeli politicians in October passed legislation to bar UNRWA from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem while raising the prospect of similar measures against other aid agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNRWA says Gaza has become a \u2018graveyard\u2019 as Israel continues its bombing campaign amid worsening living conditions Gaza Strip An Israeli air strike has killed 12 members of a family, including seven children, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defence rescue agency has reported. A video posted by the agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-450864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n