Children among 5 Palestinians killed in Gaza amid persistent Israeli attacks on civilians

Five Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Monday – and several others injured – in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire that ostensibly went into effect last October. A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Anadolu that the body of 10-year-old Amal Nashat Abu Khater, along with two injured Palestinians, had been brought to the hospital after Israeli forces targeted local homes and displacement tents with gunfire. Witnesses also told Anadolu that Israeli military vehicles had fired on the city’s Satr area, injuring three Palestinians. In central Gaza, two Palestinian brothers were killed when an Israeli drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people near the Shuhadaa Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. An Anadolu correspondent, citing a local medical source, said Mohammed Abdul Nasser Abu Asad, 27, had also been killed and several others injured. Ibrahim Abdel Nasser Abu Asad, 24, also died from injuries sustained in the strike, the correspondent added. In Gaza City, two Palestinians, including a woman, were injured by Israeli army gunfire in the Zeitoun and Shujaiya neighborhoods, a medical source told Anadolu. In the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike targeted a home, killing a child and wounding his mother and sister, according to the Civil Defense. In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a Palestinian was killed and five others were wounded when an Israeli drone struck a gathering of civilians west of the city, a medical source told Anadolu. Israel also shelled a home west of Deir al-Balah after issuing an evacuation warning, wounding three Palestinians, according to a medical source. Israeli warplanes also targeted a prayer hall attached to the Abu Salim Mosque in the center of the city, causing extensive damage. In Gaza City’s western Shati refugee camp, an Israeli airstrike targeted the Asqalan prayer hall and destroyed it after an evacuation warning was issued for a residential block. Israeli warplanes also targeted a water desalination plant in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City, destroying the facility and damaging nearby homes and tents sheltering displaced Palestinians. 3 Palestinians succumb to injuries Separately, two Palestinians died at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis from injuries sustained in two separate Israeli attacks on the city on Sunday and last Wednesday, a medical source said. Another man also died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike on a Gaza City cafe on Wednesday. That attack killed eight Palestinians and injured 14 others, according to a medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital. Eyewitnesses in Khan Younis also reported heavy Israeli gunfire directed at tents for displaced people. Local witnesses also reported Israeli artillery shelling on the Abu Rashid area south of central Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp. The Israeli aggression has continued on a daily basis despite an earlier call by US President Donald Trump for Israel to halt its attacks on the embattled Palestinian enclave. In an interview with Fox News last week, Trump said that Israel “should not be striking in Gaza.” Hamas, he added, had “agreed to lay down their weapons” under a US-backed peace plan. On Monday, Gaza’s government media office said Israel had committed 4,379 ceasefire violations since the ceasefire deal ostensibly took effect. On humanitarian aid, the media office said only 66,607 aid trucks had entered the Gaza Strip out of 189,000 that had been supposed to enter by Monday. Israel continues to block agreed-upon aid deliveries from entering Gaza, where around 2.4 million Palestinians live, roughly 2.15 million of whom have been displaced by persistent Israeli attacks. On freedom of movement, the media office said Israel had only allowed 11,759 people to leave the strip out of 29,800 who had been supposed to depart the territory after the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. The media office called on Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye – as well as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement – to pressure Israel to implement the terms of the deal and halt its continued violations. In a report released Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals had received two bodies and 32 injured people over the past 24 hours, without specifying the circumstances. The ministry added that the post-ceasefire death toll currently stands at 1,288, with another 4,290 injured, in addition to 813 bodies recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings and infrastructure. The overall death toll from Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 currently stands at 73,422 killed and 174,401 injured, the ministry added. Numerous victims remain buried under the rubble, with ambulance and civil-defense teams unable to reach them, it said. Alongside the casualties, most of whom are women and children, Israel has destroyed around 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, with the UN estimating total reconstruction costs at some $70 billion.