Fifteen members of a Palestinian family are killed in an Israeli attack on a Gaza Strip shelter | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

The Israeli military bombed a warehouse housing displaced Palestinians in the az-Zawayda area of ​​central Gaza, killing 15 members of a family, including nine children.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense, said on Saturday that 15 of those killed in the night attack were members of the Ajlah family, including three women. In total, 16 people were killed in the attack.

Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza that three Israeli rockets hit the warehouse a few kilometers south of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

“A huge fire broke out and burned everything in the warehouse while children were torn to pieces. Rescue efforts to recover more bodies are still ongoing,” he said.

“There is great frustration and sadness. The bodies are now lined up in the morgue at Al-Aqsa Hospital as the family prepares to bury them.”

The attack came after international mediators – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – concluded ceasefire talks in Doha on Friday that they described as “serious and constructive.” Their goal was to end the war and release Israeli prisoners held in Gaza for the benefit of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

“What have they done to deserve this?” Ahmed Abu al-Ghoul, a local who witnessed Israel's recent attack, told AFP news agency.

Al Jazeera's Abu Azzoum reported more airstrikes, mainly on homes in the enclave. In one of these attacks, at least seven Palestinians from the same family were killed in the western Nuseirat refugee camp.

“We are seeing the recent Israeli attacks wiping out entire families,” he said.

Further evacuations

Israel issued another round of evacuation orders on Saturday, this time for parts of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

The Israeli military's Arabic-speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee, made the announcement in a social media post, listing blocks in Maghazi and several other neighborhoods in central Gaza from which residents should flee.

He said the Palestinian group Hamas had fired rockets from the areas and the Israeli military would respond “decisively”.

“For your own safety, go to the humanitarian zone immediately,” Adraee said.

This is the third time in a matter of days that Israel has ordered the evacuation of several districts of the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced as a result.

Abu Azzoum said families are fleeing to Deir el-Balah, “which is already overcrowded with displaced families,” adding that “the humanitarian zone is shrinking.”

Israeli forces also called on residents to flee the area around the town of Beit Hanoon in the north of the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel to continue diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire, which President Joe Biden said is in sight and warned the Middle East parties not to undermine the negotiations.

A senior Hamas official dismissed Biden's optimism. “To say that we are moving towards an agreement is an illusion,” Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement sent to AFP.

“We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but the imposition of American dictates.”

Blinken is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Monday.

On Saturday, the Gaza Strip's Health Ministry said 69 people had been killed and 136 injured in Israeli attacks in the past 48 hours.

This brings the number of victims in the enclave since October 7 to 40,074 dead and 92,537 injured, it said.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 captured in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.