Israeli strikes kill three in Gaza, medics say, as ceasefire disputes persist
Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to health officials in the territory.
Medics said two people were killed and six others wounded in two separate air strikes in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. A third person was killed in an Israeli strike in the town of Al-Mussadar. Details of those killed were not immediately available.
The Israeli military said it carried out two strikes in the enclave, targeting Palestinian militants, without giving further information.
Israel says the Hamas militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a ceasefire that is now a year old, and has stepped up strikes on the group in recent weeks. Hamas has denied trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal, and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States last year, calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory. But little progress has been made, as negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw its troops. Israeli forces control about two-thirds of the territory, after ordering residents out.
Nearly all of Gaza's more than two million residents live in the remaining third of the enclave, among war ruins, mostly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings that remain under the effective control of Hamas.
According to the territory's health officials, at least 1,580 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire began. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period.
Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, which was launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Casualty figures released by authorities in Gaza cannot be independently verified, and the accounts given by the two sides in the conflict frequently differ. Both Israeli and Palestinian statements on the conduct of the war and on the ceasefire are contested by the other party.
The strikes on Monday underline how fragile the year-old truce remains. The agreement halted full-scale fighting but left the central political questions unresolved: the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the return of displaced residents to their homes and the funding and management of reconstruction.
Mediators have continued to shuttle between the two sides, but no breakthrough has been announced. Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the humanitarian situation in the enclave remains dire, with most residents dependent on external assistance and sheltering in temporary structures that offer little protection as winter approaches.
Diplomats have said that without a durable arrangement on security and governance in Gaza, sporadic strikes and retaliatory violence are likely to continue, with civilians bearing the heaviest cost.
