GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning and killed 11 members of a single family, including women and children, according to the civil defence agency.

“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli air strike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said.

“Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing.”

10 others die in attacks elsewhere

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.

Mahmud Bassal, the spokesman, said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the Hamas-run territory, killing 10 people.

Five people were killed in north-western Gaza City when an air strike hit a group of people near Dar Al Arqam school, he said.

Three others were killed in a strike in the Al Mawasi area of the southern Khan Yunis region, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured since the start of Israel’s invasion after Oct 7.

American-Turkish activist laid to rest

Mourners gathered in south-western Turkiye on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist who was shot dead while protesting against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and infuriated Turkiye.

Eygi’s body, wrapped in the Turkish flag and carried by uniformed officers, arrived at its final resting place in the Aegean town of Didim.

A picture of Eygi was placed near the coffin during the funeral at a local mosque.

A large crowd gathered during the prayers, including Eygi’s family, members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause.

Protesters chanted slogans near the mosque showing their support for Palestinians.

Eygi was shot while taking part in a demonstration on Sept 6 in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, near Nablus.

She was a human rights activist and volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement, which calls for resisting the oppression of Palestinians using non-violent methods.

Her family wanted Eygi to be buried in Didim, where her grandfather lives and her grandmother has been laid to rest. She was a frequent visitor to the seaside resort.

Ankara said this week it was probing her death and pressed the United Nations for an independent inquiry.

Ankara said it was also planning to issue international arrest warrants for those responsible for Eygi’s death, depending on the findings of its investigation.

The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case.

President Erdogan himself did not show up in Didim, but sent his vice president, foreign, interior and justice ministers.

Opposition CHP party chief Ozgur Ozel attended the funeral.

The United Nations said Eygi had been taking part in a “peaceful anti-settlement protest” in Beita, the scene of weekly demonstrations.

Israeli settlements, where about 490,000 people live in the West Bank, are illegal under international law.

The young woman’s body arrived in Istanbul on Friday from Tel Aviv, before being transferred to Turkiye’s third-biggest city Izmir, where an autopsy was carried out.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2024