Girl, 5, killed in Israeli missile strikes on Gaza died with her cousin as brother, 6, injured

A five-year-old girl among a dozen people killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza died with her cousin.

Alaa Abdullah Riyad Qaddoum died around 4.30 pm on Friday after the Shuja’iyya neighborhood was hit according, to NGO Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP).

The DCIP said a group of people standing outside Abu Samra mosque in Wadi Al-Arayes were hit by the airstrike, which also injured Alaa’s brother Riyad, six, and father Abdullah.

Her 24-year-old cousin Yousef Salman Mohammad Qaddoum and at least two other people were also killed in the attack, it claims.

“Israeli forces routinely use explosive weapons in densely populated civilian areas with complete disregard for the indiscriminate effects,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.

“There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian children and their families and they increasingly bear the brunt of Israel’s repeated military offensive,” he added.

A doctor at the Al-Shifa hospital said Alaa was killed instantly and sustained injuries to her forehead, chest, and right leg from shrapnel.

The DCIP has since been named Alaa as the nineteenth Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in 2022.

Fears were raised of an escalation in tensions berween Israel and Palestine after a wave of Israeli air strikes on the coastal enclave, which, alongside Alaa, claimed a senior militant and a 23-year-old woman among its victims.

The fighting began on Friday with Israel’s dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and continued throughout the night.

The latest round violence was sparked by the arrest this week of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, part of a month-long Israeli military operation in the territory.

Citing a security threat, Israel then sealed roads around the Gaza Strip and on Friday killed the militant leader in a targeted strike.

A blast was heard in Gaza City, where smoke poured from the seventh floor of a tall building.

And a video released by Israel’s military showed the strikes blowing up three guard towers with suspected militants in them.

The Palestinian health Ministry said that more than 80 had been wounded in the attacks, but did not differentiate between civilians and militants.

The Israeli military said early estimates were that around 15 fighters were killed and dozens were wounded.