By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Three Palestinian children who were players at Al-Wahda Academy in Gaza were killed in Israeli raids on the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the sports institution announced Sunday
“We are torn over the martyrdom of players Sami Bilal Abu Issa and Muhammad Bilal Abu Issa from Al Wahda Academy,” it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the academy said the child Adam Ramez Nabhan was killed in another Israeli bombing on Friday.
A medical source confirmed to Anadolu that players Sami Abu Issa, 4, and Muhammad Abu Issa, 6, who were brothers, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential house in the center of the city.
The source said that Nabhan, 6, was killed in another Israeli bombing on Friday.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.
More than 33,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza and nearly 76,400 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi