Relative of 11-year-old girl killed in Gaza says Israeli gunfire was responsible for her death

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip | A relative of an 11-year-old girl killed in Gaza said that Israeli gunfire was responsible for her death on Thursday.

The family had returned to a designated safe zone following the Oct. 10 ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group. More than 400 deaths have been reported since then in the Palestinian territory.

After shells and shrapnel hit her home in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya area, Hamsa Housou was taken to Shifa Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, her uncle said.

Outside the hospital mortuary, the uncle, Khamis Housou, told The Associated Press that the family had returned home on Oct. 11, a day after the ceasefire went into effect.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and it wasn’t possible to independently verify the details about Hamsa’s death. The military has previously said that actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.

Housou, who said his niece had dreams of becoming a doctor, recounted how early on Thursday he heard screams as Israeli troops combed the area where shells and shrapnel hit. He ran from his apartment toward the home where Hamsa lived and found her lying on the floor.

He carried the girl to the nearest clinic, only to find the ambulance there had a flat tire. They waited about 15 minutes, he said, before taking her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“They say that there is a ceasefire and that the war on Gaza has stopped. Is this only through the media, while every day there are explosions and fire belts?” he asked. “Shooting does not stop. Where is the ceasefire?”

Khamis Housou said that Falluja, the neighborhood in Jabaliya where the family lives, has been subjected to daily shooting by Israeli troops despite being on the western side of the yellow ceasefire line.

At least 424 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly three months since the ceasefire took effect, Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, said Tuesday.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 71,391, the ministry said, with another 171,279 wounded.

The phased ceasefire agreement remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage in Gaza. Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Wednesday that it had been notified that teams had recommenced searching for Ran Gvili. The 24-year-old police officer was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that triggered the war.

Israeli soldier sentenced

An Israeli soldier seen in a widely circulated social media video firing live ammunition from his post into the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day will serve 20 days in prison, Israel’s military said Thursday. Military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said on X that the unnamed soldier “acted contrary to procedures by firing in an unprofessional manner and not complying with orders.” He said the soldier was firing toward an open area and not at civilians or homes.

Rights groups have long criticized the military’s investigations as lacking independence and say wrongdoing is rarely punished. The sentence marked a rare instance of an Israeli soldier facing consequences for conduct in Gaza. While the military routinely says it investigates alleged violations, most cases don’t result in disciplinary action or penalties.

Disarming Hezbollah

Lebanon’s military said Thursday it had concluded the first phase of a plan to fully deploy across southern Lebanon and disarm non-state groups, notably Hezbollah.

Though Lebanon said it had fulfilled the first phase of a plan to fully deploy across and disarm non-state groups active in the south, the actual text of the ceasefire agreement is vague as to how Hezbollah’s weapons and military facilities throughout the country should be treated.

It says that Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the Litani River — a key line long referenced by the United Nations and others in peacekeeping agreements demarcating southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah insists that the agreement only applies south of the Litani, while Israel maintains that it applies to the whole country. The Lebanese government has said it will eventually remove non-state weapons throughout the country.

Israel said that the development was encouraging but “far from sufficient,” and the country’s foreign ministry said that the group still has dozens of compounds and other infrastructure.

The effort to disarm Hezbollah comes after a Washington-brokered ceasefire ended a war between the group and Israel in 2024.

Israel, which continues to strike Lebanon almost daily, said on Thursday that the efforts were encouraging but far from sufficient, asserting that Hezbollah is still attempting to rearm itself in southern Lebanon. Its foreign ministry said in a statement that the group is “rearming faster than it is being disarmed.”

Sam Metz reported from Jerusalem. Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb contributed reporting from Beirut.