Five Palestinians Killed in Gaza in an Israeli Airstrike

Five Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Wednesday evening in the southern Gaza Strip during an Israeli air raid, according to a local hospital.

In a statement, the Israeli army claimed to have "struck a Hamas terrorist" in "response" to clashes that injured five of its soldiers.

Palestinian ambulances recovered five bodies, including those of two children aged 8 and 10, along with several injured individuals, following an Israeli bombing, reported the Kuwaiti field hospital located in the Al-Mawassi area of Khan Younis.

The other victims were aged 30, 36, and 46, according to the same source.

According to Gaza's Civil Defense, an aid organization operating under Hamas, Israel "targeted the tents of displaced persons with multiple missiles" in the Palestinian territory, where a fragile ceasefire with the Islamist movement Hamas has been in effect for nearly two months.

Contacted by AFP, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal confirmed the death toll of five.

Earlier, the Israeli army had reported an operation in the southern Gaza Strip that had left four of its soldiers injured, a figure later raised to five.

"Today, during an operation by the Golani reconnaissance brigade east of Rafah, soldiers encountered several terrorists who emerged from a tunnel," it stated.

Gunfire ensued, resulting in injuries to four soldiers, one of them seriously.

A source within the Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza told AFP that Israeli occupation vehicles had conducted intense artillery shelling east of Rafah.

It also reported airstrikes from planes "flying over the area at low altitude."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of continuing to violate the ceasefire and engaging in "terrorist acts" against Israeli forces, according to a statement from his office.

"Our policy is clear: Israel will not tolerate any harm to IDF soldiers and will respond accordingly," he added.

The Israeli army claimed on Sunday to have killed over 40 Palestinian fighters over the past week during operations targeting tunnels near Rafah.

Hamas sources had earlier indicated that the movement's fighters were trapped in tunnels in an area controlled by Israeli military.

A ceasefire came into effect on October 10, more than two years after the war began following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. Both sides accuse each other of violating it.