Israeli strikes kill five more in Gaza despite ceasefire

Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians in two separate attacks in Gaza City on Wednesday, health officials in the territory said, the latest deaths in a ceasefire that has done little to stop the killing.

Medics said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood killed at least four people and wounded 14 others. An earlier strike on an apartment elsewhere in the city killed a woman, The Express Tribune reported, citing Reuters.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either strike.

1,400 killed since the ceasefire

At least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect last October, according to the territory’s health officials. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period.

Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, which began after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel in October 2023.

The ceasefire deal calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory, but little progress has been made. Negotiators have failed to agree terms for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its troops.

Tuesday’s strikes

Wednesday’s deaths followed a day of strikes on Tuesday:

• Nasr neighbourhood, Gaza City: a dawn strike on an apartment building killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, head of Hamas’s armed wing in north Gaza. A second person later died of wounds
• Jabalia refugee camp: two strikes, one near a medical clinic and one on a tent camp housing displaced families, killed at least three people, medics said

Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in breach of the ceasefire, and it has stepped up strikes in recent weeks. The Israeli military says it has killed at least 20 Hamas figures this month. Hamas denies trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal, and accuses Israel of undermining the peace deal.

Burying the dead, three years on

Also on Tuesday, Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza buried the newly recovered remains of 41 people killed in a series of Israeli strikes on homes on a single day, three weeks into the war nearly three years ago. Across Gaza, families are still recovering bodies from the rubble of homes destroyed in the bombing.

Violence in the West Bank

The strikes came as settler violence surged in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, more than 100 Israeli settlers attacked the village of Jalud, setting fire to Palestinian buildings and vehicles as soldiers tried to escort a displaced Palestinian family back to their home, Dawn reported, citing AFP. The family had been forced out by settler attacks two months earlier, and settlers had occupied the house since.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, blaming “a small group of rioters”, in a rare rebuke that came after three Israeli border police officers were lightly injured. According to the United Nations, settler attacks on Palestinians, including beatings, vandalism and arson, averaged six a day in the first half of this year. Some 500,000 Israeli settlers live among three million Palestinians in the West Bank, in settlements that are illegal under international law.

Why it matters

A ceasefire is meant to end the killing. In Gaza, it has not. With 1,400 Palestinians killed since it began, a humanitarian catastrophe still unfolding and no progress on reconstruction, pressure is growing on the United States and other mediators to make the truce hold. Read our reports on Gaza’s death toll passing 74,000 and on settler attacks on three West Bank villages.

This article draws on reporting by Reuters, via The Express Tribune, and AFP, via Dawn.