Medics transport the body of a Palestinian girl into the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. AFP
Local paramedic Mahmoud Awad said he helped transfer the bodies of two girls and their father, Mahmoud Abu Kharuf, to a hospital.
"Their bodies were found under the rubble of the house that the occupation bombed in the Nuseirat camp," Awad told AFP.
He added that the body of the third girl had been found earlier by residents.
The victims were among at least 12 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip since early Thursday morning.
In northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign since 6 October, eight people were killed when a missile obliterated a home in Jabalia.
Several more were injured in that strike, the Civil Defence agency said.
Additionally, the Israeli forces continued their artillery shelling on various areas east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has killed 45,936 Palestinians and wounded 109,274 others since October 7, 2023. Most of the fatalities were women and children.
These figures remain incomplete, as thousands of bodies lie buried beneath rubble, unreachable due to ongoing attacks. Ambulances and rescue teams struggle against the relentless airstrikes to reach the injured and recover the dead.
Killers of children
The UNICEF organisation said on Thursday that at least 74 children were killed in the first seven days of 2025 due to ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, including attacks on areas designated as safe zones.
"Eight infants and newborns have died since December 26 due to hypothermia," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.
She highlighted that over one million Gazan children are living in temporary tents unable to withstand the cold temperatures.
"We have long warned that inadequate shelter, lack of access to nutrition and healthcare, the dire health situation, and now the winter weather, all put the lives of all children in Gaza at risk."
"Newborns and children with health conditions are particularly vulnerable," the UN official said.
"The humanitarian situation in Gaza has spiralled out of control," the UNICEF added.
Very close ?!
Israeli air strikes and shelling continue across Gaza, even as mediators push on with their efforts to halt the war and secure a deal for a ceasefire.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Paris that a ceasefire was "very close".
"I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," Blinken said, referring to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.
But if not, "I believe that when we get that deal -- and we'll get it -- it'll be on the basis of the plan that President (Joe) Biden put before the world back in May."
The three-phase plan Joe Biden unveiled in May 2024, aimed at facilitating a captives swap deal and securing a ceasefire in Gaza, has since floundered. Repeated declarations of an "imminent" agreement have crumbled under the weight of new demands consistently imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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