Israeli airstrikes kill at least 23 people in Gaza including medic, 7 children

Wednesday marked another deadly day in the Gaza Strip despite an October truce deal after health officials said Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 23 Palestinians, including seven children.

The latest deaths come just days after 30 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday, according to hospitals — one of the highest tolls since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was signed on Oct. 10.

Among the dead was Hussein Al-Smery, a medic who rushed to help victims of a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Red Crescent spokesperson Raed Al-Nims confirmed to CBC News. Health officials said Al-Smery was then killed by a second attack on the same location.

“These are considered violations to international law that protect paramedics and health officials,” Al-Nims told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Wednesday, calling on the international community to condemn these violations.

“The nature of his work was clear. He was transporting the wounded people in the area but unfortunately he was targeted.”

Al-Nims said a total of 57 paramedics have been killed since October 2023, a majority of whom were killed while they were performing their duties.

Tents in Mawasi, a coastal area near Khan Younis crowded with Gazans displaced by the conflict, had been ripped apart by the strikes. Nearly all of Gaza’s population of more than two million has been forced to flee their homes.

The Israeli military said it had launched the strikes in response to militants opening fire against Israeli troops operating near its armistice line with Hamas. It said an Israeli soldier was severely injured by the militant fire, which it described as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

A later statement said one of the strikes had targeted a senior Hamas commander.

Relatives said a commander from the militant group Islamic Jihad and his 11-year-old daughter were among those killed in strikes on Wednesday.

Hamas said Israel’s action undermined efforts to stabilize the ceasefire. In a statement, the group called for “immediate international pressure to halt violations.”

More than 530 killed since October

Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a five-month-old boy was killed. The attacks come three days after Israel reopened Gaza’s main border ​crossing with Egypt, a major step in the U.S.-backed truce.

“While we were sleeping in our house, the tank shelled us and the shells ​hit our house. Our children were martyred — my son was martyred, my brother’s son and daughter were martyred…. We have nothing to do with anything, we are peaceful people,” said Abu Mohamed Habouch, speaking at a funeral for his family.

Since ‍the start of the ceasefire, Israeli fire ⁠has killed at least 530 people, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s two-year offensive on the Gaza Strip killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities, displaced most of its population and left much of the strip in ruins.

The attack led by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Several Canadian citizens were killed in those attacks.

Rafah border crossing confusion

Palestinian patients preparing to cross through the newly opened Rafah crossing to Egypt were told that Israel had postponed the passage of patients through the border. Since then, Palestinian health authorities said that the group of patients were on their way to the border.

The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said the Rafah crossing remained open, but it had not received necessary details from the World Health Organization to facilitate crossings. The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An Egyptian security source told Reuters that Israel had cited security issues in the Rafah area as the reason for the temporary closure, but those had since been resolved and work had resumed at the border.

Reopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the October ceasefire that set out the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to stop fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.

Sixteen patients from Gaza and 40 of their escorts crossed into Egypt on Tuesday, Gazan medics told Reuters.

The first phase of Trump’s plan left Hamas ​in control of a bit under half of Gaza, where the group polices streets and has re-established its hold. Israel accuses Hamas of planning or attempting to carry out attacks on its troops, prompting strikes that have ‍killed hundreds.

Hamas has agreed to discuss disarmament with other Palestinian factions, but neither Washington nor regional mediators had presented the group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal, two Hamas officials told Reuters.