At least 12 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in three separate Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, among them six members of a single family who died when their apartment in the western al-Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck in the early hours of the morning. Ahmed al-Masri, who identified himself as a survivor, told reporters he heard children calling for help but was unable to reach them. "The whole family of my brother has been wiped from the civil registry — him, his wife and their four children," he said, adding that he had managed to pull his own children out through a window as the building burned. Another family member told the BBC that Firas al-Masri had been killed alongside his wife, Salsabeel, and their three daughters and son. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City confirmed receiving the bodies; AFP journalists on the ground observed a building with its roof nearly entirely collapsed and sections charred by fire. The Israeli military acknowledged carrying out a strike in the area, saying it had targeted a Hamas operative, and said it was still assessing the outcome.

Two further strikes followed later on Tuesday. Four people were killed in an airstrike on a home in the al-Samar area of central Gaza City, near the General Service Hospital, and two more died when an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in the al-Zahra area south of the city. The Israeli military separately said it had conducted an airstrike against "armed terrorists transferring weapons in a vehicle" in southern Gaza. Hamas condemned the strikes on the al-Masri family as a "true embodiment of the brutality of the occupation" and a violation of the October 2025 ceasefire agreement signed under international auspices.

The strikes come amid mounting concern from international bodies over a broader escalation of military activity across the territory. The UN human rights office said that between 13 and 20 July alone, at least 57 Palestinians were killed, including six children and eight women, in strikes on residential buildings, a tent camp for displaced families, and other densely populated areas. Spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan noted that 34 of those victims died far from the so-called Yellow Line — a boundary marking territory under Israeli military control — which, the UN said, Israel has been steadily pushing westward. "Nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire, still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza," Al-Kheetan said, warning that the pattern of civilian deaths raises concerns about violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes.

Since the ceasefire came into effect last October, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks — a figure the UN considers reliable. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the same period. Israel says its ongoing operations target militants responsible for the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Since that attack, Israel launched a large-scale military campaign in Gaza; the territory's health ministry puts the overall death toll from that campaign at more than 73,290. Israel currently occupies more than 60 percent of Gaza's territory, according to reporting from the region, and continues near-daily aerial and artillery bombardments against a civilian population facing a severe humanitarian crisis with dwindling space for safety.