Israeli fire in Gaza kills 17, after militant gunfire wounds Israeli soldier
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fire in Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians, most of them women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday. Israel said its strikes came after militants fired on its soldiers, seriously wounding one.
Seven women and five children were killed, hospital officials said, including a 5-month-old and a baby just 10 days old. They are the latest Palestinians in Gaza to die since a ceasefire deal, which has been punctuated by deadly Israeli strikes, came into effect on Oct. 10, 2025. More than 530 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli in that time, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
The attacks and the escalating death toll have rocked the U.S.-backed truce and caused Palestinians in the strip to say it does not feel like the war has ended. Mediators have condemned the attacks and Hamas has called them violations of the deal, but Israel’s military says it is responding to Hamas violations or militant attacks on its soldiers. The military says four soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire took hold.
Early Wednesday, Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old girl, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother.
Israel’s military said its aircraft and armored units had returned fire after militants started shooting at troops, badly wounding a reservist soldier who was evacuated to a hospital. Israel called the militant attack a violation of the deal.
After the Tuffah strike, Israeli fire continued across the strip, said hospital officials. An Israeli strike on a family’s tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people including a 12-year-old boy, said Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. Tank shelling in Gaza City’s eastern neighborhood of Zaytoun killed another three Palestinians, according to Shifa Hospital, including a husband and his wife.
Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.