Gaza deaths reported after Sunday airstrikes
At least 12 Palestinians were killed Sunday in Gaza in strikes that hospital officials said included two boys, a pregnant woman and eight police officers, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and other hospital authorities said. The hospital confirmed the toll and said 14 others were wounded.
Hospital authorities said a strike Sunday morning hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing four people. They said the dead included a couple in their 30s and their 10-year son, and the woman had been pregnant with twins, according to the hospital.
The hospital said the fourth fatality was a 15-year-old neighbor who was taken to Awda hospital in Nuseirat. Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb, a neighbor, described the strike to the Associated Press as taking place without warning.
“We were sleeping and got up to the strike of a missile. The strike was strong,” Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb said. “There was no prior warning.”
Another strike Sunday afternoon hit a police vehicle on the south-north Salah al-Din route at the entrance of the central town of Zawaida, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. The ministry said the strike killed eight police officers, including Col. Iyad Ab Yousef, described as a senior police official in central Gaza.
Israeli military cites a prior incident involving troops
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant Sunday in response to an earlier incident in which a militant opened fire at troops. It did not provide further details.
Hamas oversees a police force that, after militants seized power in Gaza in 2007, maintained a high degree of public security, while also cracking down on dissent, according to the report. The police largely disappeared during the war as Israeli forces seized large areas of Gaza and targeted Hamas security forces with airstrikes, the report said.
After an October ceasefire, the police “reappeared in Gaza streets and reasserted control” in areas not controlled by the Israeli military, the report said.
Ceasefire holds, but Israeli fire continues almost daily
The deaths reported Sunday were among the latest fatalities in Gaza since the ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the report said the ceasefire has still brought almost daily Israeli fire, including repeated airstrikes and frequent firing on Palestinians near military-held zones.
Israel said its actions were responses to ceasefire violations or targeting of wanted militants. Gaza health officials said more than 650 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, and the Gaza Health Ministry said about half of those killed have been women and children, according to the report.
The conflict began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the report said. That attack killed over 1,200 people and took over 250 others hostage, and the report said more than 72,200 Palestinians have since been killed in the war.
Rafah crossing to reopen with limited passenger traffic
Israel also announced it would allow the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt starting Wednesday after more than a two-week hiatus. COGAT, the Israeli military body that coordinates aid to Gaza, said the crossing would resume with “limited” passenger traffic in both directions and that no cargo would be allowed through.
COGAT said procedures would be the same as before the crossing closed after Israel and the U.S. launched devastating strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, triggering an expanding regional war, according to the report.
The report said Israel had allowed limited evacuation of patients and wounded people for treatment outside Gaza since Rafah opened earlier this year, describing it as a fraction of more than 20,000 requiring medical evacuations, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Some Palestinian people who were treated in Egypt during the war were also allowed to return to the strip, and some returnees reported abuses by Israeli troops after they crossed the Palestinian gate of the crossing.