Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 33 people and wounded others, medical officials said, in one of the deadliest flare-ups since a U.S.-backed ceasefire took hold last month.
Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said they received 17 bodies, including five women and five children, after four airstrikes hit tents housing displaced people. In Gaza City, health officials said two strikes killed 16 people, including seven children and three women.
Israel said it carried out the attacks after its troops came under fire in Khan Younis on Wednesday. It reported no casualties. Hamas called the strikes a “shocking massacre” and denied firing at Israeli forces.
Residents said the pause in fighting feels fragile. Gaza officials say more than 300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began.
Qatar, a key mediator during the war, condemned what it called “brutal” Israeli strikes and warned they could undermine the ceasefire agreement.
On Monday, the U.N. Security Council endorsed Trump’s plan for Gaza, including an international stabilization force and a possible path toward a sovereign Palestinian state. Major hurdles remain, including how Hamas would be pressed to give up its weapons, which countries would provide peacekeeping troops, and how full humanitarian aid would reach Gaza without Israel lifting restrictions on supplies.
Hamas is still holding the remains of three hostages, and Israeli forces continue to control more than half of Gaza after pulling back from some positions when the ceasefire began. The territory is now split by what officials call the “yellow line.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 300 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, averaging more than seven a day. Each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, which calls for increased aid deliveries and the return of hostages, alive or dead, to Israel.
The war was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, when militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. More than 69,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s offensive and in strikes since the ceasefire, Gaza officials say. Thousands more are believed to remain buried under rubble.
The escalation in Gaza came as Israel also carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. A day earlier, an Israeli strike killed 13 people in the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, the deadliest attack in Lebanon since a ceasefire ended last year’s Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
