Israeli Drone Strikes Kill Three Palestinians in Gaza City, Gaza Health Ministry Says

Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip have killed 1,005 Palestinians since a ceasefire was reached between Israel and the militant group Hamas last October, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday, with near-daily strikes, shelling and gunfire along the boundary dividing Gaza into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled zones.

The most recent deaths were recorded after a series of Israeli drone strikes over the past few days targeting towns and refugee camps in central Gaza and Gaza City, according to the Gaza Health Ministry reporting cited by the AP.

Al Jazeera

In central Gaza City, an Israeli drone targeted a civilian vehicle near the Municipal Park, killing three Palestinians at the scene and injuring several others, with Civil Defense crews transporting the wounded to Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

The death toll since the ceasefire took effect on October 11 was reported as 1,007 by the Gaza Health Ministry, and specialized teams recovered the bodies of 784 Palestinians from different locations throughout Gaza since the truce began, according to Palestine Chronicle’s account of hospital data.

Medics said an Israeli strike hit a vehicle on the main Omar al-Mokhtar road in Gaza City, killing three, and the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas fighters as violence continued despite a new truce push by mediators.

Middle East Eye said that including the latest incident, the number of Palestinians killed since an October 2025 truce brokered by US President Donald Trump was 1,009, while it also said later on Thursday Israeli forces operating near the central area of Gaza killed one person.

Al Jazeera

Palestine Chronicle reported that the strike hit the vehicle with a missile fired by an Israeli reconnaissance drone, and it quoted Nasrin Begum as describing how workers could not reach others—an account that the outlet tied to the broader toll it described as “devastating.”

The Gaza Health Ministry figures cited by Palestine Chronicle said the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the genocide on October 7, 2023, had risen to 73,018, with 173,273 others wounded, and it said the figures do not include an unknown number of Palestinians missing beneath rubble.

While the ceasefire framework was described as ongoing, the sources tied the continuing violence to the difficulty of moving toward the next phase, with the Reuters account in أخبار الخليج saying Israel and Hamas remained at an impasse over how to move forward and that the next phase includes disarming Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

أخبار الخليج also reported that two sources close to the talks said Nikolai Mladenov, the envoy to the Trump-formed Gaza Peace Council, held talks this week in Cairo with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey after Hamas and other Palestinian factions submitted their response to the roadmap proposed by Trump.

In the same Reuters-linked reporting, it said the Health Ministry in Gaza put the number of Palestinians killed since the ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump in October 2025 at 1,008, including the latest incident.

The Independent and NPR both framed the same Gaza Health Ministry figure as 1,005 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire, and NPR added that the war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.