The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip reported Saturday that 28 Palestinians, including children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes across several areas of the enclave. According to the ministry, 11 people were killed in a strike on the police headquarters in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
Medical sources in Gaza said four Palestinians, including two girls and a woman, were killed in an airstrike on an apartment in western Gaza City, with several others wounded. Eight additional Gazans were reported killed in a strike on a tent northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Footage from the strike in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces said the strikes, which targeted Hamas positions, were carried out in response to ceasefire violations by the terrorist organization. According to the IDF, in one incident overnight, forces killed at least three terrorists in the Rafah area after eight were identified emerging from a tunnel in the eastern part of the city. Additional strikes were later carried out in areas where the remaining terrorists attempted to flee.
In another overnight incident, the Israeli Air Force killed four armed terrorists near the so-called Yellow Line in central Gaza, after they were identified by combat forces from the Kfir Brigade.
IAF strikes in Gaza
Gaza reports also said several people were wounded in a strike near Khan Younis, while others were injured in a separate attack on an apartment near the Jabalia junction in eastern Gaza City. Additional casualties were reported in a strike on a residential building in the Nasr neighborhood of Gaza City.
Palestinian officials claimed that since the ceasefire agreement took effect on October 11 last year, more than 1,850 people have been killed or wounded.
Meanwhile, amid the ceasefire and the stalled transition to its second phase, Hamas continues to strengthen its position in Gaza. Earlier this week, senior IDF officials recommended immediately halting the 4,200 supply trucks Israel allows into Gaza each week as part of the arrangements linked to the hostages Hamas released under the deal, following the completion of Phase One.
Security officials warned that the current stalemate benefits Hamas’s recovery and that Israel risks becoming reactive rather than decisive, particularly amid what they described as growing Qatari and American influence over Gaza’s future, three months after the end of the war.