Israeli airstrikes kill at least 24 people in Gaza including medic, 7 children

wed pronounced another lifelessly daytime in the Gaza dismantle despite an October truce deal after health officials said Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians, including seven children.

The latest deaths come just days after 30 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday, according to hospitals — one of the highest tolls since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was signed on Oct. 10.

"The nature of his work was clear. He was transporting the wounded people in the area but unfortunately he was targeted."

Al-Nims said a total of 57 paramedics have been killed since October 2023, a majority of whom were killed while they were performing their duties.

Tents in Mawasi, a coastal area near Khan Younis crowded with Gazans displaced by the conflict, had been ripped apart by the strikes. Nearly all of Gaza's population of more than two million has been forced to flee their homes.

The Israeli military said it had launched the strikes in response to militants opening fire against Israeli troops operating near its armistice line with Hamas. It said an Israeli soldier was severely injured by the militant fire, which it described as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

A later statement said one of the strikes had targeted a senior Hamas commander.

Relatives said a commander from the militant group Islamic Jihad and his 11-year-old daughter were among those killed in strikes on Wednesday.

Hamas said Israel's action undermined efforts to stabilize the ceasefire. In a statement, the group called for "immediate international pressure to halt violations."

Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a five-month-old boy was killed. The attacks come three days after Israel reopened Gaza's main border ​crossing with Egypt, a major step in the U.S.-backed truce.

Ashraf Haboush said his son, nephew and niece were among those killed in a Gaza City home after Israeli shelling.

"We were sleeping, sheltering in our home. We are peaceful people. The shells hit us … and caused a fire to erupt in our home," Haboush, 49, told El Saife at a funeral for his family outside Al-Shifa Hospital.

"All the children in the building came to put out the fire and [Israeli forces] hit them with more shelling."

Haboush said they lived far away from the so-called yellow line that divides up the area where Israeli forces operates. As of now, Israel holds more than 53 per cent of Gaza's territory, where they have ordered residents out and razed many remaining buildings.

Since ‍the start of the ceasefire, Israeli fire ⁠has killed at least 530 people, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel's two-year offensive on the Gaza Strip killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities, displaced most of its population and left much of the strip in ruins.

The attack led by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Several Canadian citizens were killed in those attacks.

Palestinian patients preparing to cross through the newly opened Rafah crossing to Egypt were told that Israel had postponed the passage of patients through the border.

Later, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 46 people were set to cross to Egypt on Wednesday, but only 20 were able to travel to Egypt while the other 26 were returned to Gaza.

The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said the Rafah crossing remained open, but it had not received necessary details from the World Health Organization to facilitate crossings. The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An Egyptian security source told Reuters that Israel had cited security issues in the Rafah area as the reason for the temporary closure, but those had since been resolved and work had resumed at the border.

Reopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the October ceasefire that set out the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to stop fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.

Sixteen patients from Gaza and 40 of their escorts crossed into Egypt on Tuesday, Gazan medics told Reuters.

The first phase of Trump's plan left Hamas ​in control of a bit under half of Gaza, where the group polices streets and has re-established its hold. Israel accuses Hamas of planning or attempting to carry out attacks on its troops, prompting strikes that have ‍killed hundreds.

Hamas has agreed to discuss disarmament with other Palestinian factions, but neither Washington nor regional mediators had presented the group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal, two Hamas officials told Reuters.

Senior Writer

---

---