Israeli military strikes have killed at least 15 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave’s health ministry said yesterday, as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza.
Israel’s military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by fighters approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect.
Gaza’s health ministry said most of the latest deaths were on Saturday when an Israeli air strike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said six men that it had identified as members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic group had been killed in the strike. It said some of the fighters had operated “under the cover of journalists”.
Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the military’s statement about the incident included the names of people who were not present.
It was based on inaccurate social media reports “without even bothering to verify the facts”, Marouf said.
At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.
An Israeli drone had fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza yesterday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others, the medics said. Several others were hurt when an Israeli drone fired a missile towards a group of people in Rafah, they added.
The Israeli military said it was not familiar with the reported drone strikes.
Later yesterday, an Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian near the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, medics said. The Israeli military said in a statement it struck an attempting to plant a bomb on the ground.
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