Israeli Strikes in Gaza Result in 28 Palestinian Deaths, 17 Children Among Victims

By Brett Wilkins

Israel Defense Forces strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians including a woman and 17 children in the Gaza Strip Wednesday in the latest of what local officials say are over 400 Israeli violations of a tenuous ceasefire.

The IDF said it carried out strikes targeting neighborhoods in Gaza City and Khan Younis after “terrorists” opened fire on occupation troops—none of whom were harmed—in what the IDF called “a violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

Gaza officials said that more than 100 people were also wounded in Wednesday’s attacks, including one which medical personnel said targeted a building housing displaced families in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

See Also: Hamas is battling powerful clans for control in Gaza – who are these groups and what threat do they pose?

Hamas—which rules Gaza and led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel—condemned the attacks as “a dangerous escalation” and refuted the IDF’s claim while accusing Israel of attempting to “justify its ongoing crimes and violations.” Hamas also urged the United States to exert “immediate, serious pressure” on Israel to “respect the ceasefire and halt the aggression against our people.”

Israeli forces also continued bombing southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a day after at least 13 people were killed in an IDF airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Ain al-Hilweh near Sidon. Local officials said most of the victims were children playing soccer.

Israel has been accused of repeatedly violating its ceasefire agreements with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

See Also :Israel Says 20 Militants Killed in Lebanon Over Past Month

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed and over 750 others wounded in what officials say are nearly 400 Israeli violations of the October ceasefire with Hamas.

Since agreeing to a truce with Hezbollah in November 2024, Israeli forces have also killed at least 121 civilians, including 21 women and 16 children, in Lebanon, according to officials there.

Overall, Israel’s 775-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 249,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, and sickened.

Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Lebanon killed more than 4,000 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. This figure includes at least 790 women and 316 children. More than 16,600 others have been wounded. Upward of 1.2 million Lebanese were also forcibly displaced by Israel’s attacks and invasion.

This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article Contact: editor@commondreams.org

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