CAIRO/GAZA, April 6 (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people and injured several others outside a school housing displaced Palestinians on Monday, health officials said, in the latest violence to overshadow the fragile US-backed ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Some Palestinians clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia, who they said attacked the school in an attempt to kidnap some people, doctors and residents said.
Amid the clashes, east of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli drones fired two missiles into the area, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others, they added.
Continues after advertising
It was not immediately clear how many civilians were killed in the attacks, which targeted a close neighborhood of mostly displaced Palestinians.
Ahmed al-Maghazi, an eyewitness, said the area was attacked by members of the Israeli-backed militia operating in the area adjacent to territory under the control of Israeli forces.
‘Residents tried to defend their homes, but the occupation forces attacked them directly,’ he told Reuters.
Later on Monday, a leader of one of the Israeli-backed militias said in a video — which Reuters was unable to immediately authenticate — that they had killed about five Hamas members.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which classifies groups operating in areas under Israeli control as ‘Israeli collaborators’.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian and injured a child as they rode a motorcycle in Gaza City, health professionals said.
Continues after advertising
According to doctors, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian when they opened fire on a vehicle in central Gaza, bringing the death toll this Monday to at least 12 people.
The Israeli Army did not immediately provide comment on any of the three incidents on Monday.
The Palestinian group Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, and Israel have exchanged accusations over violations of the ceasefire that began in October.
Continues after advertising
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 700 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire. Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza in the same period.
The violence comes at a time when Hamas continues to resist handing over its weapons, offering a major obstacle to negotiations to implement the next steps of US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan.
On Sunday, the armed wing of Hamas said that discussing the group’s disarmament before Israel fully implements the first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan is an attempt to continue what it called genocide against the Palestinian people.
Continues after advertising
Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli records.
Israel’s two-year campaign that followed the October attack killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
The offensive spread famine, reduced most of the strip to rubble, and displaced most of its population.
Continues after advertising
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Mahmoud Issa in Gaza)
