GAZA CITY, Palestine: Israeli air strikes and gunfire killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to Palestinian medics and health officials.
Medical sources in Gaza, cited by Palestinian news agency Wafa, said that at least seven people had been killed in Israeli attacks since Tuesday morning.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, cited by Wafa news agency, said a child was among those killed in an Israeli strike on the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in south-west Gaza City.
According to medics cited by Reuters, an Israeli air strike in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed one man and wounded two children.
The Israeli military told Reuters the strike targeted a Hamas fighter.
Another Israeli air strike hit near a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in western Gaza City, killing one person and injuring five others, medics said. A third strike in Khan Younis killed another person and wounded three others.
The Israeli military said both strikes had also targeted fighters.
The Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian armed group, later said one of the strikes in Khan Younis had killed one of its senior leaders, Waheed Abu Salem.
Later on Tuesday, one Palestinian was killed and nine others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, according to medics and witnesses.
In a separate incident, an Israeli air strike hit a vehicle in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, killing three people, including a child, medics said.
One of those killed was identified as Mohammad Al-Waheidi, who worked for the Egyptian Relief Committee, an organisation providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has continued to carry out air strikes in Gaza since a US-mediated ceasefire with Hamas came into effect in October last year, saying it is targeting fighters who threaten Israeli forces or who participated in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement.
Nikolay Mladenov, head of the Board of Peace established under US President Donald Trump’s peace initiative for Gaza, has said both Israel and Hamas have violated the ceasefire.
According to figures released by the two sides, more than 1,070 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect around eight months ago.
Israeli forces currently control more than 60 percent of Gaza, patrolling what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as a buffer zone intended to prevent future attacks. Netanyahu has said Israel will not withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
Israeli military operations have displaced nearly the entire population of around two million people, with most now living in tents or damaged buildings along a narrow coastal strip.
According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign on October 7, 2023.
On Monday, Hamas announced it was dissolving its governing authority in Gaza after nearly two decades in power, paving the way for a committee of Palestinian technocrats to administer the territory under a US-backed peace plan.
