A 38-year-old Palestinian from Gaza was buried on Wednesday, the only known fatality in Iran’s missile attack against Israel, after Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight.
Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali had been staying in a Palestinian security force compound in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when he was killed by falling missile debris during Tuesday’s attack, which Israel said was largely thwarted by its air defence systems.
Security forces personnel carried the body draped in the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag. The crowd of about 200 mourners was made up of fellow Palestinians from Gaza staying in Jericho and local people.
A large section of the rocket lay on the ground where it fell outside the compound.
Around 700 workers from Gaza have been staying in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago.
Unlike Israelis, who went into bomb shelters after warning sirens sounded across the country, many Palestinians in the West Bank went out to watch the missiles and observe the explosions as they were intercepted by the Israeli air defence.
Falling debris from intercepted missiles streaked across the night sky over Jerusalem on Tuesday after Iran fired dozens of missiles into Israel.
Video footage taken from a CCTV camera showed a large metal tube falling out of the sky and landing on a man walking across a street, apparently killing him instantly.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from the road layout, buildings, utility poles and markings on the ground which matched satellite imagery of the area. The date was verified by a time code.
Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a “painful response” against its enemy.
Almost a year ago, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of its ally Hamas in the war in Gaza, which began after the latter group led the deadliest assault in Israel’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s ensuing war against the militant group has devastated Gaza, displacing most of its 2.3-million population and killing more than 41,600, according to Gaza health authorities.
At least 60 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics said, as Israeli tanks advanced in areas of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Israeli tanks carried out a raid on several areas in eastern and central Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, before partially retreating, killing at least 40 and wounding dozens of others, according to the official Voice of Palestine radio and Hamas media.
In Gaza City, at least 22 Palestinians were killed, the medics said. One Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City killed 17 people, while another hit the Al-Amal Orphan Society, which also houses displaced persons, killing at least five others, the medics said.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, locked in nearly a year of war with Israel, celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave, but caused no human losses, witnesses said.
Anas Al-Masry witnessed the missiles headed toward Israel Tuesday evening.
“Every day, we are being turned into [victims of] massacres and slaughters, especially in schools and in [areas] where people are displaced,” Al-Masry told CBC News.
“When we saw the rockets … one’s mind becomes a little bit more calm — that we’re striking if they strike.”
