Two Gaza Civil Defence workers killed as Israel launches multiple strikes

At least six other people killed and many wounded in an Israeli raid on a house in Jabalia al-Nazla in northern Gaza.

At least two members of Gaza’s Civil Defence have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave, rescue and emergency services say.

A drone strike targeting the Civil Defence headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday killed firefighter Nabil Bahloul and his son.

Another Civil Defence worker, Najib Sakr, was killed as the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City was bombed by Israeli forces.

“We received an emergency stress message … calling for help to extinguish a fire that broke out as a result of an Israeli air strike on a residential building,” said Ahmed al-Madhoun, a member of the Civil Defence.

“We rushed to the scene. On the way, we received a call telling us that the site we were heading to has just been pounded again. We went and found dozens killed, including our fellow Civil Defence team members shredded to pieces.”

The Israeli military’s targeting of Gaza’s Civil Defence offices is on the rise, Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said.

“We are talking about 14 centres that have been obliterated alongside 56 vehicles, including fire engines and ambulances,” he said.

“Civil Defence workers are unable to effectively operate in northern Gaza, where their services are witnessing a near-total collapse due to the repeated Israeli attacks on their members on the ground,” he added.

As a result, civilians are taking responsibility, coming together to conduct risky rescue operations, including pulling victims from under the rubble of bombed buildings, Abu Azzoum said.

At least six Palestinians were killed and many others wounded in an Israeli raid on a house in northern Gaza’s Jabalia al-Nazla area, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground. The house belonged to the Abu Warda family.

Civil Defence officials said the bodies of three children were still under the rubble and its crews were facing difficulty in recovering them.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a mid-level Israeli ceasefire negotiating team will return to Tel Aviv on Tuesday night after a “meaningful week” of talks in Qatar.

Additionally, an Israeli military investigation concluded on Tuesday that the presence of Israeli troops inadvertently contributed to the deaths of six captives killed by their Hamas captors in Gaza.

The captives’ bodies were discovered in a tunnel in late August, an event that sparked some of the largest antiwar protests since the war began.

The investigation found that the six captives were killed by multiple gunshots from their captors after surviving for nearly 330 days in Gaza.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza since October last year has killed at least 45,338 Palestinians and wounded 107,764.

At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.