Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed five Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, health officials and medics reported, in the latest incidents to erode a four-month-old, U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the territory.
Medics said that in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, an airstrike struck two people riding an electric bike, killing them. Later in the same town, Israeli drone fire killed a woman, according to the same medical sources. In the south, troops shot and killed a man in Khan Younis, while in the north a man was killed by Israeli gunfire in Jabalia.
The violence followed an incident on Monday in Rafah in which Israeli forces killed four militants after they emerged from an underground tunnel and opened fire on troops. In response to that encounter, the Israeli military said it had carried out strikes targeting what it described as Hamas militants, though it did not comment directly on the four people killed on Tuesday.
In Gaza City on Tuesday, dozens of Palestinians gathered for funerals for three people killed by an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building the previous night. At the funerals, one body was wrapped in a green flag associated with Hamas and another had a green ribbon on his forehead, symbols that medics said signaled the two were members of the militant group. No independent confirmation of the identities of those killed was available.
The recent deaths add to a tally that health authorities in Gaza report since an October ceasefire deal was struck. Gaza's health ministry says at least 580 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the period following the ceasefire. Israeli officials report that four soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same timeframe.
The four-month-old truce was brokered by the United States and is a central element of the U.S. administration's plan to end the Gaza war. That plan envisions a sequence in which Hamas would disarm, Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza, and an international peacekeeping contingent would be deployed. Hamas has not accepted calls to lay down arms, and Israeli officials say they are preparing for the possibility of a return to full-scale war.
Beyond the fatalities recorded since the October 2023 outbreak of hostilities, official Gaza health ministry figures say the overall conflict has been deadly and destructive. The war began with the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which Israeli tallies say killed more than 1,200 people. Palestinian health ministry data cited in medical reports state that Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 people since then.
Events over the past two days - the Rafah clash followed by separate strikes and shootings across Gaza - underline persistent frictions over how the ceasefire is being observed and blamed. Both sides have repeatedly exchanged accusations of violating the terms of the truce, and the recent incidents highlight the fragility of the arrangement.
Reporting limitations: Independent verification of the identities of the individuals killed in the incidents described was not available at the time of the reports cited by medical and military sources.