At least 25 Palestinians were killed and 77 others injured in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said, marking a new violation of a fragile ceasefire deal in place since last month.
A ministry statement said that some of the injured civilians are in critical condition.
The Israeli army launched a series of strikes in several areas in Gaza on Wednesday evening. The military claimed that the attacks were in response to gunfire targeting its force in Rafah in southern Gaza.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said the Israeli strikes targeted several areas in the Gaza Strip since the afternoon.
Basal said the attacks started with artillery shelling targeting a house in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City, killing a young Palestinian.
Another strike hit a civilian gathering in the same neighborhood, killing one more civilian and injuring dozens of others, he added.
Israeli warplanes also struck the headquarters of Gaza’s Endowments Ministry in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing five people, including a pregnant woman and a girl, the spokesman said.
In southern Gaza, three Palestinians were killed, and several others injured in an Israeli strike on a group of civilians in Khan Younis, the spokesman said.
According to an Anadolu correspondent, the attacks targeted areas from which the Israeli army withdrew in Gaza under the ceasefire deal that took effect on Oct. 10.
Palestinian group Hamas denounced the Israeli attacks as a “horrific massacre” and “a dangerous escalation through which war criminal (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu seeks to resume the genocide against our people.”
It dismissed Israeli claims about gunfire on its forces as “a weak and exposed attempt to justify its crimes and violations.”
Hamas called on Türkiye, the US, Egypt, and Qatar, as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, to exert immediate pressure on Israel to end its violations that threaten the ceasefire.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, injured over 170,000, and reduced the enclave to rubble.
