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Palestinian killed by Israeli firing in Gaza

Medical officials in Gaza said the person who died was killed by Israeli firing east of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza
Medical officials in Gaza said the person who died was killed by Israeli firing east of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza

One Palestinian was killed in Gaza by Israeli firing and another wounded, local medics said, as a fragile ceasefire holds between Hamas and Israel.

Gazan medical officials said the person who died was killed by Israeli firing east of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Civil defence rescuers said one Palestinian was shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire in the western Khan Younis area in the southern part of the Strip.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has identified the latest body returned from Gaza by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as Israeli-Argentinian hostage Lior Rudaeff, the Israeli army said, while the bodies of 15 Palestinians held by Israel have been returned.

Mr Rudaeff, 61, was killed in the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz while trying to protect his community with four other residents on 7 October, 2023 during the brutal Hamas cross-border attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

Protesters hold a sign with the photo of Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff
Protesters hold a sign with the photo of Israeli hostage Lior Rudaeff

The volunteer ambulance driver's body was taken to the Palestinian territory that day, and held there until yesterday when his remains were returned under the terms of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect last month.

"Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine... IDF representatives informed the family of Lior Rudaeff that he had been returned for burial," the Israeli military said.

Under the stark mathematics of the ceasefire plan, for every Israeli hostage returned the bodies of 15 slain Palestinians will be handed back.

Accordingly, the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Younis announced the "arrival of the bodies of 15 martyrs from the Gaza strip which had been held" by Israel - bringing the number returned to 300.

Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross bring the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Nasser Hospital
Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross brought the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis

The Palestinian bodies were returned to the hospital by the Red Cross, as in previous transfers.

The Palestinian remains have been returned unidentified and many have been consigned to mass graves.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, welcomed the return of Mr Rudaeff's body.

"Lior's return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years," it said in a statement.

"We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home."

At the start of the truce, Hamas released all 20 surviving hostages seized during its 7 October, 2023 attack.

In exchange, Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in its custody.

Of the 28 deceased hostages that Hamas agreed to hand over under the deal, it has so far returned 23 - 20 Israelis, one Thai, one Nepali and one Tanzanian - including the latest body.

The last five deceased hostages include four seized on 7 October, 2023 - three Israelis and one Thai - as well as the remains of a soldier who died in combat in 2014 during a previous war in Gaza.

Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza's bombed-out rubble.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again called on Hamas "to uphold its commitments" and return the remaining hostage bodies.

"We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them," it said in a statement.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill three

Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed three people and wounded several more, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with Israel announcing one of the attacks had hit arms smugglers from a group affiliated with Hezbollah.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that two brothers from the town of Shebaa were hit while driving on a road on the slopes of Mount Hermon in southeastern Lebanon, "causing their SUV to catch fire and resulting in their deaths".

The Israeli military confirmed that they had conducted a strike near Shebaa that killed two smugglers from the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a group allied with Hezbollah.

"The terrorists were involved in smuggling weapons used by Hezbollah and their activities constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon," the Israeli military said, referring to the ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group.

"The IDF (military) will continue to operate in order to remove any threat posed to the State of Israel," it warned.

Lebanon's health ministry confirmed the death toll in Shebaa, later reporting that another strike on a car in the southern village of Baraashit had killed one person and wounded four.

A similar Israeli strike this morning on a car near a hospital in the southern city of Bint Jbeil wounded seven people, according to the ministry.

The latest attacks came as the European Union added its voice to international concern over Israel's continued strikes despite the nearly year-old truce.

"Focus by all parties must be on preserving the ceasefire and the progress achieved so far," the European Commission's foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

Israel argues that Lebanon is acting too slowly to disarm Hezbollah and insists it has the right to carry out operations to protect its border and citizens from attack.

On Thursday it announced a series of strikes in southern Lebanon in advance, and urged civilians to evacuate the targeted areas.