At least 20 Palestinians, including children and a paramedic, have been killed and nearly 40 others injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to hospital officials. Several of the victims were taken to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, while others were received at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said its tanks and aircraft carried out what it described as “precise strikes” targeting individuals it labelled as “terrorists” after Israeli troops came under fire in northern Gaza, leaving an officer seriously wounded.
According to the military, the incident occurred near the Yellow Line, beyond which Israeli forces are deployed inside Gaza, and amounted to a “blatant violation” of the three-month-old ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Hamas rejected Israel’s explanation, accusing it of using the shooting as “a flimsy pretext to justify the continuation of killing and aggression against our people”.
Al-Shifa Hospital said it received 13 bodies, including five children, after tents sheltering displaced families and residential homes were struck in the eastern Zeitoun and Tuffah neighbourhoods of Gaza City.
Among those mourning at the hospital was Abu Mohammed Haboush, who said his family was asleep when their home was shelled.
“Our children were martyred – my son was martyred, my brother’s son and daughter were martyred,” he told Reuters.
“We have nothing to do with anything, we are peaceful people.”
Nasser Hospital reported receiving four bodies, including one child, following strikes on tents in the southern Qizan Rashwan area. Hospital officials later confirmed that two sisters, Rahaf and Remas Abu Jamea, along with paramedic Hussein al-Samiri, were killed in a separate attack in the coastal al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis.
A first responder from Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Jihad al-Hinnawi, said the paramedic had rushed to assist victims of an initial strike on a tent in al-Mawasi before being killed in a second strike on the same location.
The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that Samiri was killed “while carrying out his humanitarian duty in Khan Younis” and accused the Israeli military of a “grave violation” of international humanitarian law, which protects medical personnel.
An Israeli military source later confirmed that strikes were carried out in Gaza on Wednesday in response to the shooting that wounded the Israeli officer.
Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of near-daily ceasefire violations since the truce came into effect on 10 October. On Sunday alone, more than 30 people were reported killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza. Israel said those attacks followed an incident in which gunmen emerged from a tunnel in the southern Rafah area, beyond the Yellow Line.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 556 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began, while the Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.
The conflict began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has resulted in more than 71,820 deaths, according to the territory’s health ministry.
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