Israel strikes Gaza, killing 24, and says militants attacked its soldiers

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 24 Palestinians, including two babies, according to health officials in the territory, where a fragile ceasefire has come under increasing strain. Israel said that it killed three militant leaders and others who posed a threat to its forces, and that some strikes came in response to a Hamas attack that seriously wounded one of its soldiers.

Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect Oct. 10. The escalating Palestinian toll has prompted many in Gaza to say it feels like the war is continuing unabated.

Among the Palestinians killed Wednesday were at least five children, seven women and an on-duty paramedic, according to hospital officials.

“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”

Israel strongly denies accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza. The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a surprise barrage of rockets, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting about 250 others.

Deadly strikes have continued despite ceasefire deal

The ceasefire pact attempted to halt the more than two-year-old war between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Although the heaviest fighting has subsided, violence has repeatedly flared up.

A total of 556 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and 1,500 wounded since the ceasefire went into effect, according to Gaza health officials. Those killed include 197 children and 82 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel’s military says four of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began.

Israel’s military has said its strikes are responses to Hamas violations of the ceasefire or militant attacks on its soldiers. Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and Qatar, recently condemned what they called Israel’s “repeated violations” of the deal.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military policy, told the Associated Press that Israel’s latest attacks were in response to militant gunfire that badly wounded a reservist soldier Wednesday morning.

Early-morning strike kills 11, including two children

Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in northern Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old daughter Wateen Khabbaz, her 5-month-old cousin, Mira Khabbaz, and the children’s grandmother.

The Israeli military said the attack was a real-time response to the gunfire that targeted its soldiers.

Mourners gathered in the courtyard of Shifa Hospital on Wednesday morning for funeral prayers.

“What did this child do? …. Why are they killing the children?” asked a relative of the family, Mohammad Jaser.

“We don’t understand why this is happening to us. What do we do? Where do we go? This isn’t life,” he said.

Two young children were seen kneeling at the body of their father as a woman told them to bid him farewell. A young girl kissed the dead man’s cheeks.

Strikes on Gaza continue Wednesday

A strike on a tent in the Muwasi area of Khan Yunis killed at least three people and wounded 10 others, according to a field hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent in the area. The dead included Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, a paramedic who was on duty at the time, the hospital said.

The Israeli military said the strike had targeted and killed a Hamas platoon commander, Bilal Abu Assi, who led a deadly attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 assault. It said it had used surveillance, precision weapons and other means to avoid hitting bystanders and “regrets any harm caused to uninvolved civilians.”

A separate strike in Khan Yunis killed three people.

Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said that a 12-year-old boy was among the dead, and that they were killed by a strike on a family’s tent. An Israeli military official said the strike targeted three individuals who approached Israeli-controlled territory, posing an immediate danger to troops.

Another strike hit Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, killing one person and wounding another, according to health officials at Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military said it had killed the leader of a Hamas cell responsible for killing a soldier abducted from the Nahal Oz observatory post during the October 2023 assault. It said the militant, Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, was targeted in response to the overnight shooting by Hamas.

Israel said the third militant killed Wednesday was an Islamic Jihad leader in northern Gaza.

At least 38 Palestinians were wounded in total by the strikes Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Passage through Rafah border is minimal

The Rafah border crossing’s opening Monday was hailed as a step forward for the fragile ceasefire. But since then, Palestinian passage through the crossing has been marred by delays, interrogations and uncertainty over who would be allowed to cross.

It took the entire day Tuesday for 40 Palestinians to enter Gaza. Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, they finally arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where their families welcomed them.

On Wednesday, 15 patients from Gaza and 31 of their relatives were scheduled to cross to Egypt, but more than half of the group was turned away, said Raed al-Nims, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society. The government of North Sinai confirmed that some had been allowed into Egypt, but did not provide figures. By evening it was unclear whethe any Palestinians had been allowed to cross into Gaza, and the World Health Organization did not respond to requests for an update.

Despite minimal traffic, a European Union official said the Rafah border crossing remained open. The official, tasked with communicating for the EU, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be named. An EU mission and Palestinian workers were present at the crossing.

Three women who crossed into Gaza on Monday told the Associated Press a day later that Israeli troops blindfolded and handcuffed them, then interrogated and threatened them, holding them for several hours before they were released.

The EU official said that the border mission had no knowledge of luggage confiscation or mistreatment by Israeli soldiers or Palestinians in the border areas.

Asked about the reports, the Israeli military said that “no incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions, or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment are known.”

Ceasefire deal plods forward

Although all fighting has not stopped, some parts of the ceasefire deal have moved forward.

Hamas has released all of the hostages it was holding, and in return Israel has released several thousand Palestinians and is beginning to reopen Rafah. Increased amounts of humanitarian aid have flowed into Gaza and a new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer the territory’s daily affairs.

But other key elements of the ceasefire appear to have stalled, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. The U.S. has given no timeline on when these parts of the deal will wrap up.

More than 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.

Shurafa, Magdy and Frankel write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel from Jerusalem. AP writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.