Israel Strikes Gaza, Killing 19        02/04 06:15

   

   DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 19 
Palestinians, most of them women and children, by midday Wednesday, according 
to hospital officials. Israel pledged to continue strikes, saying that it was 
responding to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that seriously wounded one.

   Among the Palestinians killed were five children, including a 5-month-old 
and a baby just 10 days old; seven women; and a paramedic, said hospital 
officials. They are the latest Palestinians in Gaza to die since a ceasefire 
deal, which has been punctuated by deadly Israeli strikes, came into effect on 
Oct. 10, 2025.

   The escalating Palestinian death toll has rocked the U.S.-backed truce and 
caused Palestinians in the strip to say it does not feel like the war has ended.

   "The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues," said Dr. 
Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook 
post. "Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?"

   Deadly strikes have continued despite ceasefire deal

   The deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and 
Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, it has been marred by repeated 
flareups of violence.

   More than 530 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire 
went into effect, according to Gaza health officials, while Israel's military 
says four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

   Israel's military has said its continuing strikes are responses to Hamas 
violations or militant attacks on its soldiers, but dozens of civilians have 
been killed. Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and 
Qatar, recently condemned what they called Israel's "repeated violations" of 
the deal.

   An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line 
with military policy, told The Associated Press that Israel was striking the 
strip in response to militant gunfire that badly wounded a reservist soldier 
Wednesday morning.

   Early morning strike kills 11, including two children

   Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, 
killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, 
which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old 
girl, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother.

   Mourners gathered in the courtyard of Shifa hospital Wednesday morning for 
funeral prayers.

   "What did this child do? Was she (affiliated with) Hamas or Fatah? .... Why 
are they killing the children?," asked a relative of the family killed in 
Tuffah, Mohammad Jaser.

   "We don't understand why this is happening to us. What do we do? Where do we 
go? This isn't life," he said.

   Two young children were seen kneeling at the body of their father, as a 
woman told them to bid him farewell.

   "Kiss him," the woman told a young girl, who kneeled and kissed his father's 
cheeks.

   Strikes on Gaza continue into Wednesday afternoon

   Meanwhile, the strikes continued.

   An Israeli strike on a family's tent in the southern city of Khan Younis 
killed three people including a 12-year-old boy, said Nasser hospital, which 
received the bodies.

   Tank shelling in Gaza City's eastern neighborhood of Zaytoun killed another 
three Palestinians, according to Shifa Hospital, including a husband and his 
wife.

   A strike on a tent in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis killed at least two 
people and wounded five others, according to a field hospital run by the 
Palestinian Red Crescent in the area.

   The dead included Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, a paramedic for the 
Palestinian Red Crescent who was on duty at the time, said the hospital.

   Ceasefire deal plods forward

   While fighting has not stopped, other parts of the ceasefire deal have moved 
forward.

   Hamas has released all of the hostages it was holding, and in return Israel 
has released several thousand Palestinians. Increased amounts of humanitarian 
aid have flowed into Gaza, the Rafah border crossing has opened for a trickle 
of people to cross, and a new technocratic committee has been appointed to 
administer Gaza's daily affairs.

   But other key elements of the ceasefire appear to have stalled, including 
the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and 
reconstruction of Gaza. The U.S. has given no timeline on when these parts of 
the deal will wrap up.

   Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, 
according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not say how many were 
fighters or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, 
maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. 
agencies and independent experts.