Gaza Strikes Hit Camp, Police Station

Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians on Saturday, including several children, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire aimed at stopping the fighting. A day after Israel accused Hamas of new ceasefire violations, strikes hit locations throughout Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, said officials at hospitals that received the bodies. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families, the AP reports. Another airstrike hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 14 and wounding others, the Shifa Hospital director said.

The strikes were launched a day before the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt is to open in Gaza's southernmost city. All of the territory's border crossings have been closed throughout almost the entire war. Palestinians see Rafah as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed. The crossing's opening, limited at first, marks the first major step in the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire. Reopening borders is among the challenging issues on the agenda for the phase now underway, which also include demilitarizing the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.

As the ceasefire agreement inches forward, the death toll in Gaza is still rising. Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren. Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City apartment building strike killed three children, their aunt, and their grandmother, while the strike on the police station killed at least 11—officers, including four policewomen, and inmates held at the station. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Palestinian civilians were also killed in the strike. Hamas called Saturday's strikes "a renewed flagrant violation" and urged the United States and other mediating countries to push Israel to stop strikes. A, Israeli military official said the strikes were in response to ceasefire violations the day before.