At least 12 Palestinians died in three Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to local medical officials. Six members of one family, including four children, were killed when their apartment caught fire overnight in the al-Sabra district of western Gaza City.
The victims from that household were Firas al-Masri, his wife Salsabeel and their children Faryal, Salma, Amira and Naim, al-Masri's brother told the BBC. Video showed flames inside the apartment. Israel's military said it had aimed at a Hamas operative and was examining the consequences of the strike. It did not identify the alleged operative in the supplied account.
Later on Tuesday, four people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a home in al-Samar in central Gaza City, Palestinian media reported, citing medics. Two others died in a drone attack on a vehicle in al-Zahra, south of the city. The Israeli military had not commented on those two incidents at the time of reporting.
The deaths occurred despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect the previous October. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said Israeli attacks had killed at least 1,168 Palestinians during the truce period. It also reported more than 73,290 deaths over the course of the wider war. Four Israeli soldiers had been killed in Palestinian attacks inside Gaza since the ceasefire began.
The UN human-rights office condemned a recent increase in Israeli military activity. Spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said the July 13–20 toll was at least 57 Palestinians; six were children and eight were women in attacks on homes, a displaced-persons camp and other crowded places. He said 34 died far from the Yellow Line separating territory controlled by Israeli forces from the rest of Gaza.
Al-Kheetan warned that civilian deaths raised concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law and potential war crimes. That statement expressed the UN office's legal concern rather than a court finding. Israel has announced operations against members of Palestinian armed factions it links to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, that left roughly 1,200 dead and resulted in 251 hostages being seized.
The three latest incidents remain only partly addressed by Israel: it acknowledged and described the intended target in al-Sabra, while no military response was available for al-Samar or al-Zahra. The reported toll therefore rests primarily on local medical accounts, with the family identities separately supplied by a relative.
The Yellow Line is the boundary inside Gaza separating areas under Israeli military control from Palestinian-administered zones. By emphasizing deaths away from it, the UN office challenged any assumption that violence was confined to the immediate vicinity of that boundary. Israel did not answer that broader criticism in the supplied report.
