Israeli air strikes kill 12 in Gaza, but ground fighting less intense

CAIRO - Israeli air strikes pounded areas across the Gaza Strip on Sept 30 killing 12, including a journalist and her family, medics said, although the intensity of the ground offensive has subsided as Israel steps up its fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Palestinian health officials said Ms Wafa Al-Udaini, who wrote articles about the war in English advocating the Palestinian viewpoint, was killed when a missile struck her house in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, also killing her husband and their two children.

There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Ms Udaini’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive since Oct 7 to 174, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

In another strike, a Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, an air strike killed a man and injured others, medics said.

Later on Sept 30, an Israeli air strike on a house in Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, killed six people, health officials said.

Some residents said fighting and Israeli military activities in Gaza have declined slightly in the past week as Israel escalated its military offensive against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon,

killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

in an air strike on Sept 27. The group announced Mr Nasrallah's death on Sept 28.

While the intensity of the ground offensive has been lower, Israel has kept up its air strikes in the enclave, they added.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel for almost a year, in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities released 12 Palestinians, including Dr Khaled Al-Ser, head of the surgery unit at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, medics and Hamas media said. Palestinians freed by Israel have complained of torture and ill-treatment in Israeli jails, charges that Israel denies.

Israel and Hamas have been fighting since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group

stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7

, killing 1,200 people and capturing about 250 hostages, going by Israeli tallies.

Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced by the war, in which more than 41,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities. REUTERS