At least 104 Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes in Gaza on Tuesday night, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
The Israeli military said it struck “dozens of terror targets and terrorists” in response to violations by Hamas of the US-brokered ceasefire deal.
Israel’s defence minister accused Hamas of an attack in Gaza that killed an Israeli soldier, and of breaching the terms on returning deceased hostages’ bodies. Hamas said it had “no connection” to the attack and that Israel was trying to undermine the deal.
US President Donald Trump maintained “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire, but added that Israel should “hit back” when its soldiers were targeted.
The Israeli strikes hit homes, schools and residential blocks in Gaza City and Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza, Bureij and Nuseirat in the centre, and Khan Younis in the south.
Witnesses in Gaza City described seeing “pillars of fire and smoke” rising into the air as explosions shook several residential areas.
Gaza’s health ministry said a total of 104 people were killed, including 46 children and 20 women, and that more than 250 others were injured.
Three women and a man who were pulled from the rubble of the al-Banna family’s home in the southern Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.
In the urban Bureij refugee camp, five members of the Abu Sharar family were killed in a strike on their home in the Block 7 area, it said.
At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, women gathered to mourn over the bodies of a mother, Bayan al-Shawaf, and her four children who were killed in a strike on a tent at a camp for displaced families in the al-Mawasi area.
“What kind of world is this? Is this the ceasefire?” asked Bayan’s cousin, Umm Mohammed. “They [the children] were sleeping. They were wanting to learn.”
