Israeli airstrike kills at least ten near Gaza school as ceasefire strains

An Israeli airstrike killed at least ten people and wounded several others outside a school housing displaced Palestinians on Monday, health officials said, in the latest violence overshadowing the fragile US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal.

Before the strikes, some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia, who they said attacked the school in an attempt to abduct some people, medics and residents said.

In the midst of the clashes, east of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli drones fired two missiles into the area, killing at least ten people and wounding several others, they added.

It was not immediately clear how many civilians had been killed in the strikes, which hit in a closely packed neighbourhood of mostly displaced Palestinians.

Ahmed al-Maghazi, an eyewitness, said their area was attacked by members of the Israeli-backed militia who operate in the territory adjacent to where the Israeli forces are in control, before the militia opened fire.

“The residents tried to defend their homes, but the occupation forces targeted them directly,” he told Reuters.

Later on Monday, a leader of one of the Israeli-backed militias said in a video, which Reuters couldn’t immediately authenticate, that they killed some five Hamas members.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which brands those groups that operate in areas under Israeli control as “Israeli collaborators.”

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian and wounded a child as they travelled on a motorbike in Gaza City, medics said.

Medics said that Israeli forces killed another Palestinian when they opened fire on a vehicle in central Gaza, taking Monday’s death toll to at least 12.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on any of the three incidents on Monday.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, and Israel have traded blame over violations of the ceasefire that kicked off in October.

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since the ceasefire began. Israel says four soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.

The violence comes as Hamas has continued to resist relinquishing its weapons, a major obstacle in talks to implement the next steps in US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for Gaza.

On Sunday, Hamas’ armed wing said that discussing the group’s disarmament before Israel fully implements the first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan was an attempt to continue what it called a genocide against the Palestinian people.

Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s ensuing two-year campaign killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities.

The offensive spread famine, reduced most of the strip to rubble, and displaced the majority of its population.