This man's son, killed in Iran's attack on Israel, was waiting for a ceasefire in Gaza to return home
Man, 38, killed in occupied West Bank is only known victim of Iranian barrage on Israel
With files from Reuters and CBC's Chris Brown, Lily Martin and Yasmine Hassan in the West Bank
Hundreds of mourners gathered in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday for the funeral of a Palestinian man from Gaza, who was the sole fatality in Iran's missile attack against Israel a day earlier.
Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali, 38, had been staying in a Palestinian security forces compound in the 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.
Al-Asali, a father of three, had not seen his wife or children who are currently in Gaza, since the war broke out nearly one year ago.
"He was waiting for a ceasefire so he can go home," his father Khader Hassan Al-Asali told a CBC News crew that attended the funeral Wednesday.
"We hope that there is a ceasefire [and] God ends the war so we can go home [to] Gaza."
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 Gazans staying in Jericho and local people.
Misbah Khalil Issa Barahmeh did not know Al-Asali personally, but was among the mourners in attendance.
"Everyone is scared, all of us here are together ... we're all scared," Barahmeh told CBC News. "All of it is wrong ... all of it ... we want peace and there must be peace."
A large section of the rocket lay on the ground where it had fallen outside the compound.
Palestinians watch as missiles head toward Israel
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.
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.
Meanwhile, Hamas's armed al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for a Tuesday shooting in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv that killed at least seven people, the group said in a statement on Wednesday.
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 65 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
Overnight, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 65 Palestinians, 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.
Later on Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering Palestinian displaced families in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed three people and wounded 15, medics said. The Israeli military said the strike was aimed at Hamas militants operating from a command centre embedded in the compound that had previously served as the Nuseirat Girls School.
It accused Hamas of exploiting civilian facilities and population for military purposes, a tactic the group denies using.
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."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
