The Civil Defense Service in Gaza reported on Friday evening that the Israeli occupation army perpetrated yet another massacre, this time targeting members of the Shaaban family in Gaza City’s az-Zeitoun neighborhood.

According to the Civil Defense, an Israeli tank fired directly at a car carrying the family as they were returning to check on their home, killing 11 civilians — including seven children and two women. The victims were members of the same family, whose lives were brutally cut short in what Palestinian officials described as a deliberate attack on innocent civilians.

“The Israeli army could have warned the family or dealt with them in a way that did not lead to their death,” the Civil Defense said in a statement. “However, this incident once again proves that the occupation remains bloodthirsty and insists on committing heinous crimes against defenseless civilians.”

Palestinian media sources confirmed that the Shaaban family had left their temporary shelter to inspect their damaged house in az-Zeitoun when an Israeli tank opened fire without warning. Witnesses described horrific scenes, as rescuers pulled the charred bodies of children and women from the vehicle wreckage.

This latest atrocity underscores the continued pattern of deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli occupation forces, even amid the supposed ceasefire period. Local humanitarian organizations warned that such repeated massacres demonstrate Israel’s disregard for international humanitarian law and its ongoing policy of collective punishment against the people of Gaza.

Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression in October 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians — the vast majority women and children — have been killed, and entire families have been wiped out in similar strikes, turning Gaza’s streets and neighborhoods into fields of death and destruction. (ILKHA)