Israeli Forces Kill Three-Year-Old Palestinian Boy Rayan Abu Al-Ajeen in Central Gaza

Israeli forces shot and killed a three-year-old Palestinian boy, Rayan Abu al-Ajeen, as his father carried him in central Gaza, the family said, with the shooting taking place in the Wadi al-Salqa area of Deir el-Balah governorate on Sunday afternoon.

“Our weekly briefing on the Gaza situation, where Israel is violating the ceasefire on a daily basis”

Agence Media Palestine

Al Jazeera reported that Rayan’s body was taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Monday, while his father, Bahaa, was shot in the leg and was being treated in hospital.

Agence Media Palestine

In a separate account, Al-Quds Al-Arabi said four Palestinians were killed, including two children, on Monday in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, with nurse Mohammad al-Hbeil and his son Musa killed after a drone strike on their residential apartment near the Abu Iskandar Roundabout in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi also tied the same day’s deaths to the killing of 3-year-old Rayan Bahaa Abu al-Ajin in the Wadi al-Salqah area east of Deir al-Balah, and said his father was wounded with moderate injuries.

The accounts place the killings against a backdrop of a ceasefire that both sides accuse each other of violating, with Al Jazeera saying Israeli forces have continued attacks in Gaza since the October ceasefire and Al-Quds Al-Arabi saying the strikes came “despite the ceasefire” in effect since October 10, 2025.

Jaber Abu al-Ajeen told Al Jazeera that “My grandson, Rayan, was killed by a gunshot to the head; the bullet entered his head and exited through his eye,” and he said his daughter-in-law was devastated.

Al Jazeera added that the Israeli military had yet to comment on the shooting, while it said the family had been travelling in areas outside the so-called ‘Yellow Line’ and were heading towards the family’s greenhouses when the shooting happened.

Al Jazeera

In the Al-Quds Al-Arabi report, a medical source said nurse Mohammad al-Hbeil and his son Musa were killed by an Israeli drone strike on their residential apartment near the Abu Iskandar Roundabout in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi further stated that Israeli violations of the ceasefire have killed 986 Palestinians and injured 3,138 others, citing data from the Health Ministry in the Strip.

The two reports thus converge on the same central Gaza locations and the same child death narrative, while also differing in how they frame the broader pattern of strikes and the figures attached to ceasefire violations.

UN News said wintry weather continued to strike Gaza, and it reported that a three-month-old baby girl was found dead from the cold Tuesday morning at her home in Gaza.

“The Israeli occupation army killed a child in the early hours of Monday in the middle of the Gaza Strip by firing at him in front of his father, who was also wounded, while one of their relatives was arrested, in the context of ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement”

Al-Jazeera Net

UN News quoted Farhan Haq, the UN Secretary-General's Deputy Spokesperson, saying the death brought “the total number of cold-related victims this season to nine,” and it said OCHA again called for urgent solutions including allowing entry of batteries and solar panels for community heating spaces.

The same UN report said humanitarian workers continued to support the population of Gaza more than three months after the ceasefire, with Haq saying that since the start of the year more than 860,000 people had received food parcels distributed through 50 distribution points.

UN News also said UN health partners vaccinated 3,000 children under three during the first two days of a 10-day routine vaccination campaign that began on Sunday, and it reported that the WHO facilitated another medical evacuation on Monday transporting 21 patients and their escorts to Jordan.

It added that more than 18,000 patients, including 4,000 children, were still waiting to be evacuated to receive medical care unavailable in Gaza, while WHO called on UN member states to host these patients and to reopen the medical evacuation route to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.