An Israeli air strike on a police vehicle yesterday killed three people in the middle of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, health officials said, hours after another person was killed in a strike on northern Gaza.
Medics and police sources said the three men killed in Nuseirat were members of the Hamas-led police force.
Ten people were also wounded in the attack, medics said.
Earlier yesterday a separate air strike killed one person – identified as a leader of one of Fatah’s armed groups – and injured an unknown number of others in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was checking on the two incidents.
While Israeli attacks in Gaza declined in the days after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, according to residents, medics and analysts, they have since begun to rise again. Israeli fire has killed dozens of Palestinians since the outbreak of the Iran war, Gaza health officials say.
In Gaza there have been regular outbreaks of violence since a ceasefire went into effect in October following two years of devastating war triggered by Hamas-led attacks in Israel in October 2023.
The territory’s health ministry says that at least 680 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the October ceasefire.
Israel said four soldiers were killed by fighters in Gaza in the same period.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for truce violations.
Extremist Jewish settlers have carried out a spate of attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to homes, vehicles and agricultural fields.
The violence began after a teenage settler – 18-year-old Yehuda Sherman – was killed on Saturday, after reportedly being hit by a vehicle driven by a Palestinian while on his quad bike. Police said they were investigating whether the hit was deliberate or accidental.
In response, WhatsApp groups used by settlers called for a “revenge campaign” over his death, according to Haaretz newspaper.
More than 20 settler attacks were reported overnight, according to a defence official cited by Israeli media.
Settler violence has surged since the US and Israel attacked Iran, with six Palestinians killed by settlers since March 1, according to the United Nations (UN).
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its troops and border police units were dispatched to several Palestinian villages on Saturday night.
It said it had received reports of Israeli civilians “committing acts of arson against structures and property, as well as engaging in disturbances in the area”.
The villages of Jalud, Qaryut, Al Funduqmiya and Silat Al Dhah were among those targeted.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said at least three Palestinians suffered head wounds and were taken to hospital after confronting the attackers, some of whom were also reportedly injured.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the assault, saying it involved the “burning of homes and property, terrorising and killing of civilians, and the targeting of vital roads, junctions, and main streets during Eid Al Fitr”.
There were unconfirmed reports that settler groups had again begun to gather outside some Palestinian villages, with local news agency WAFA reporting they had set fire to a car wash north-west of Nablus.
Earlier this month, the EU and UK demanded that Israel halt the surge in settler violence against Palestinians which has taken place since the war in Iran began on February 28.
Since the start of the year, seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and 18 by Israeli forces, according to the UN, with 15 of the killings taking place since the Iran war started.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state – during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.
The settlements are illegal under international law.
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