Israeli strikes killed six people in Gaza on Saturday, including two children and an Al Jazeera cameraman, shattering what little remains of the October ceasefire. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since that truce took effect, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The first strike came at 2 a.m. without warning. Missiles hit an apartment building in Gaza City. At the scene, an Associated Press reporter saw blood-stained concrete and rubble. Two sisters were pulled out — 4-year-old Zina and 14-year-old Lana Safadi. Their bodies were taken to Shifa Hospital in white bags, surrounded by family.
"I was sitting at home. The rocket fell on us without a warning," said their cousin Mohammad Safadi, his forehead bleeding. "This ceasefire the occupation and the negotiation team speak of... is this really a ceasefire? We are civilians. I never held a weapon."
Later Saturday, three more strikes killed four others. The deadliest hit a house in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah, Al-Aqsa Hospital confirmed. Al Jazeera said Wishah's brother Mohamed, also a correspondent, was killed in an Israeli strike in April.
Another strike hit the sprawling tent camp of Muwasi in southern Gaza — an area Israel itself designated a "humanitarian zone" — killing one and wounding eight. A third strike in Gaza City wounded at least four.
The Israeli military said it was "looking into" the apartment strike, but labelled Wishah a Hamas sniper operative without providing evidence — a familiar claim rejected by his family and Al Jazeera, which called his killing "a new and flagrant violation" of international law.
Analytically, this is the anatomy of a ceasefire that exists only on paper. Since October, Gaza has seen near-daily attacks while mediators meet in Doha and Cairo. The term "ceasefire" allows diplomacy to continue and aid to be debated, but on the ground it functions as managed attrition — low-intensity war rebranded as post-war violations.
The killing of journalists underscores the pattern. Since 2023, over 200 media workers have been killed in Gaza. When a cameraman documenting displacement is killed in a refugee camp, the message to those remaining is clear: no witness is safe.
For Gaza's 2.3 million, most of them displaced, the question is no longer when the war will end. It is whether the world will keep calling this a ceasefire while tents are still being bombed at 2 a.m.