ISRAELI strikes killed at least 11 Palestinians in separate attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian medical sources said, as Israel said it was responding to a failed rocket launch by militants from the enclave.
Reuters, on Friday, reported medics saying an Israeli air strike killed at least four people and wounded three others, including children, when a tent sheltering displaced families was hit in the western area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Another strike killed a person east of the city, close to an area where Israeli forces are operating.
Later on Thursday, medics reported that a man was killed in an Israeli strike on a school being used as a shelter for displaced families in Jabalia, in northern Gaza.
Another person was killed when a tent near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza was struck, while four others died in a separate attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it had struck several Hamas militants, rocket launch pits and what it described as “terror infrastructure” after a rocket was launched from the Gaza City area towards Israel.
According to the military, the rocket fell short and landed near a hospital inside Gaza. Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire.
A source from the Palestinian militant group told Reuters it was checking the allegation.
The ceasefire agreed in October has stalled at its initial phase, under which large-scale fighting halted, Israel withdrew from less than half of Gaza, and Hamas released hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners held by Israel.
Future phases of the agreement, which have yet to be finalised, are envisaged under a U.S.-backed plan that includes Hamas disarming, a further Israeli withdrawal and the establishment of an internationally supported administration to rebuild Gaza. However, little progress has been made towards those next steps.
More than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the ceasefire took effect.
Nearly all of Gaza’s more than two million residents are now living in makeshift shelters or damaged buildings in a narrow strip of territory from which Israeli troops have withdrawn and where Hamas has reasserted control.
Israel is still awaiting the handover of the final hostage body due under the first stage of the truce.
An Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not move to the next phase of the ceasefire until Hamas returns the remains of the last Israeli hostage still held in Gaza.
Israel said on Thursday that it had barred the entry of foreign medical and humanitarian staff from organisations that had not registered their employees with Israeli authorities.
It has also yet to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, another condition of the U.S.-backed plan, saying it would do so only once the remains are returned.
Israel and Hamas continue to accuse each other of serious violations of the ceasefire, underscoring its fragility. Israel has carried out ongoing air strikes and targeted operations across Gaza, saying it views “with utmost severity” any attempts by militant groups to attack Israel.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Thursday that the group had documented more than 1,100 Israeli violations of the ceasefire since October and had urged mediators to intervene.
He said these violations included killings, injuries, artillery and air strikes, home demolitions and the detention of civilians.
Hamas has refused to disarm and has been reasserting its control in Gaza, while Israel has warned it will resume military action if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 others, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, more than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. - January 9, 2025
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