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Raid, airstrikes, deaths
Israeli strikes in Gaza City on Tuesday followed an Israeli-backed raid to detain a Hamas militant, with Gaza officials saying the airstrikes killed at least four Palestinians, including two children.
“prompting airstrikes to cover the force's withdrawal that killed at least four Palestinians”
Reuters reported that Israeli warplanes fired at least 12 missiles near the Katiba area in the west of Gaza City, where displaced families were sheltering, and that two vehicles were hit and reduced to twisted wreckage.
Hamas official Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said an Israeli special force tried to carry out an operation in Gaza City before being detected, and that Israel then launched heavy airstrikes that killed and wounded several people.
In a separate incident, medics said a girl, Israa Al-Hissi, was killed and two other people were wounded when Israeli forces operating east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza opened fire on the area.
Competing accounts and quotes
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said a senior Hamas militant had been detained, while Hamas said Israel sent covert operatives into Gaza City that were discovered, leading Israeli forces to bombard the area to enable their escape.
Hamas-run government officials said it was not clear whether Israeli forces carried out the raid themselves or worked with members of Israeli-backed Palestinian militias inside Gaza, and the Israeli military declined to respond to Hamas’s account.
In Gaza City, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of nearby Al Shifa hospital, said casualties had been brought to his facility, and Mohammad Abu Aisha described hearing gunfire and seeing a car that had been struck.
Katz framed the operation as part of a broader approach, saying, "This is our policy: we do not wait for threats, but rather pursue Hamas terrorists, thwart them, and destroy their terror infrastructure," while Al Jazeera reported that Palestinians mourned children killed in Israeli airstrikes on an area crowded with displaced families.
Ceasefire strain and stakes
The operation unfolded despite a U.S.-backed ceasefire that took effect in October 2025, which Reuters said halted the large-scale fighting that had devastated the enclave but "has not ended Israeli strikes."
“has not ended Israeli strikes”
Reuters added that the military says such operations are intended to prevent attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, while Hamas accuses Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire and undermining efforts to advance a broader plan by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war.
The sources also tied the immediate violence to the wider political timeline, with Reuters saying the plan includes further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, and the New York Times reporting that mediators hoped the cease-fire would end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza health officials, as cited by Reuters and the New York Times, said more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire came into force last October, while the Israeli military said four Israeli soldiers have been killed in militant attacks during the same period.