Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians, including seven children in Gaza today, health officials said, the latest violence to undermine the nearly four-month-old ceasefire in the enclave.
Among the dead was a medic who rushed to help victims of a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis and was then killed by a second attack on the same location, health officials said.
Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a five-month-old boy was killed. The attacks come three days after Israel reopened Gaza's main border crossing with Egypt, a big step envisaged by the US-backed truce deal.
The Gazan health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that at least 38 others wounded.
The Israeli army said its retaliatory strike had targeted a Hamas platoon commander named Bilal Abu Assi who led an assault on a kibbutz on October 7, 2023, during the attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
The Israeli army said it took steps "to mitigate farm to civilians as much as possible" in its latest strikes.
The attacks come three days after Israel reopened Gaza's main border crossing with Egypt, a major step in the US-backed truce.
"While we were sleeping in our house, the tank shelled us and the shells hit our house, our children were martyred - my son was martyred, my brother's son and daughter were martyred ... We have nothing to do with anything, we are peaceful people," said Abu Mohamed Habouch, speaking at a funeral for his family.
Tents in Mawasi, a coastal area near Khan Younis crowded with Palestinians in Gaza displaced by the conflict, were been ripped apart by the strikes. Nearly all of Gaza's over 2 million population has been forced to flee their homes.
The Israeli military said it had launched the strikes in response to militants opening fire against Israeli troops operating near its armistice line with Hamas.
It said an Israeli soldier was severely injured by the militant fire, which it described as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas said Israel's action undermined efforts to stabilise the ceasefire. In a statement, the group called for "immediate international pressure to halt violations".
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was "outraged" by the killing of an on-duty colleague.
The IFRC said Hussein Hassan Hussein Al-Samiri, "a dedicated paramedic" with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, "was killed while performing life-saving humanitarian duties in Khan Younis during an attack in the Al-Mawasi area" of the southern Gaza Strip.
"The IFRC sends its deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues and expresses its full solidarity with PRCS."
The IFRC said the death brings the number of PRCS staff and volunteers killed in Gaza in the line of duty to 30 since the conflict began in October 2023.
The federation said humanitarian workers and medical staff needed to be respected and protected at all times.
Israel postpones passage of patients through Rafah crossing
Palestinian patients preparing to cross through the newly opened Rafah border crossing to Egypt were told that Israel had postponed the passage of patients through the border. A few hours later the patients were told to prepare again to cross the border.
The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said in a statement that Rafah crossing remained open, but it had not received the necessary coordination details from the World Health Organization (WHO) to facilitate the crossing.
An Egyptian security source told Reuters that efforts were being made to reopen the crossing, and that Israel had cited security issues in the Rafah area as the reason for the closure.
Reopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the October ceasefire that set out the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to stop fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.
Sixteen patients from Gaza and 40 of their escorts crossed into Egypt yesterday, Gazan medics told Reuters.
A Hamas police source said that at least 40 people crossed from Egypt to Gaza late on yesterday.
Today's violence brings the number of Palestinians killed since the border reopened to 29, according to a tally of reports from Gazan health officials.
On Saturday, before its reopening, Israeli strikes killed more than 30 Palestinians in Gaza.
Second phase of ceasefire
In January, US President Donald Trump declared the start of the second phase of the ceasefire where the sides would negotiate the shattered enclave's future governance and reconstruction.
Key issues like the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the over 50% of Gaza they currently occupy and the disarmament of Hamas remain unresolved, while the fragile ceasefire has been marked by near-daily violence.
Since the start of the ceasefire, Israeli fire has killed atleast 530 people, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's military has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023 in the territory, according to Gazan health authorities, displaced most of its population, and left much of the strip in ruins.
The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the latest stage of the war killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
