Israeli strikes kill 23 in Gaza, shatter fragile ceasefire
Shelling and air attacks hit homes and displacement camps, killing children and medics as evacuations through Rafah face disruption
GAZA CITY, Palestine (MNTV) — Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 23 Palestinians, marking one of the deadliest days since a United States-brokered shabby ceasefire took effect nearly four months ago, according to medical and humanitarian sources.
Doctors said intense shelling struck the Tuffah and Zeitoun neighborhoods of Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, while attacks on tents sheltering displaced families killed several others in southern Gaza, including in the Qizan Abu Rashwan and al-Mawasi areas near Khan Younis.
Children were among the dead, as well as a Palestinian Red Crescent first responder who was killed while attempting to assist victims of an earlier strike.
Witnesses and journalists on the ground reported that residential homes and tent camps were hit without warning, deepening fear among civilians already displaced multiple times by the war.
“There is no sense of safety or respite,” one Aljazeera correspondent said, describing the constant presence of Israeli drones and the expectation of further attacks.
Israel’s military claimed the strikes followed an incident in which a reserve officer was seriously wounded by gunfire near the so-called “yellow line,” an Israeli-imposed military boundary inside Gaza.
Palestinian officials and armed groups rejected the justification, accusing Israel of using isolated incidents as a pretext to continue large-scale attacks on civilian areas despite the ceasefire.
Health authorities in Gaza said more than 520 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began in October.
On Wednesday alone, Israel handed over dozens of bodies and boxes of human remains to the Red Cross, underscoring the scale of destruction and the difficulty of identifying the dead after months of bombardment.
The escalation also disrupted medical evacuations through the Rafah crossing. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel initially cancelled the evacuation of critically ill patients, before later allowing limited departures to resume following confusion over coordination procedures.
More than 18,000 patients, including hundreds in life-threatening condition, remain trapped in Gaza awaiting permission to leave.
Israel has partially reopened Rafah after nearly two years of closure, but only a small number of Palestinians are being allowed to exit each day, far below earlier commitments.
Palestinians who have crossed or returned through Israeli-controlled routes have described being blindfolded, interrogated and subjected to degrading treatment.
Since the Israeli aggression began in October 2023, at least 71,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials. United Nations investigators and human rights groups have described Israel’s campaign as genocidal, with a case currently before the International Court of Justice.
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