Israel kills two brothers in latest Gaza ceasefire violation

Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians in Gaza City overnight on Friday and Saturday, killing two people and wounding several others.

Medical sources said the two brothers, Fahmi Omar Qaddoum and Saed Omar Qaddoum, were fatally shot east of the city.

According to the Wafa news agency, several other people were injured, some critically, when Israeli military vehicles opened fire towards residential homes in the Shama’a area of Gaza’s Old City.

The attacks mark the latest casualties in Israel’s ongoing campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 692 people and wounded more than 1,880 others since a ceasefire, violated on an almost daily basis by Israel, took effect on 11 October last year.

Medical teams have also recovered the bodies of 756 people killed during Israel’s war on Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, although thousands more are believed to remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday morning that hospitals had recorded two deaths and admitted 17 people with injuries in the previous 24 hours.

Additional artillery shelling and tank fire were reported in the eastern neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Shujaiyya, and Tuffah in northern Gaza City, though no injuries had been reported as of Saturday morning.

The renewed attacks come as Israel maintains its occupation of much of the eastern areas of the besieged territory, where Israeli forces stationed along the front frequently open fire on Palestinians approaching from the west.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex has issued renewed appeals for blood donations, citing an "acute shortage" in blood supplies caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the coastal enclave.