Eighteen people were killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted the Khalifa family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Neighbors and people sit watching the rubble of the Khalifa home in Nuseirat camp [AbdelHakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
As Israel’s aggression expands in Deir el-Balah , civilian casualties are mounting amid the bombardment of residential homes.
At least 18 civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike that bombed a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp located in the central Gaza Strip on Friday evening. Journalist Mohammad Khalifa, 36, was among those who were killed, along with his wife and three children. Dozens of civilians were injured.
This incident took the death toll of journalists killed during the ongoing conflict in Gaza to 99, according to the Government Media Office. Israel’s war on Gaza has been the deadliest conflict on record for journalists, according to the New York-headquartered Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ put the death toll of journalists killed in the current war at a minimum of 69 in Gaza, as of December 23.
Mohammad Khalifa’s 65-year-old father recounted Friday’s bombing to Al Jazeera. The family, he said, was inside their home, preparing to sleep when the attack occurred. “We were sitting quietly and preparing ourselves for sleep. The house and everyone in it were bombed,” he said. “My eldest son was killed while he was working as a journalist, along with his children, and all that survived was a child who was one and a half years old”.
The father said there were about 50 people in the house, including relatives and friends displaced from the north. “We are peaceful people, we have no political affiliation. There is no security or any safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.”
Residents checking the rubble of the Khalifa family home that was bombed on Friday. [AbdelHakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Abu Mohammad Khalifa, 65, father of Mohammed Khalifa, recalls how his son, a journalist, was killed with his family and three of his children. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Nuseirat camp is densely populated, especially after the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens to the south with the start of the war on Gaza. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Around 50 members were staying at the Khalifa family home when it was bombed on Friday. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Those in the house at the time of the bombing included many relatives and friends of the Khalifa family who had been displaced from the northern Gaza Strip during Israel’s war on the enclave. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Relatives and people check the destruction in the aftermath of the bombing in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
The Khalifa house was hosting two other families — the Al Asar family and Hamad family — who had come from the north. [AbdelHakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Debris from the destroyed Khalifa house in Nuseirat camp on Friday, hours after it was hit by an Israeli missile, killing 18 people. [AbdelHakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
