10 Dead in Israeli Air Strikes Near Gaza School Despite Ceasefire

Israeli air raids killed at least 10 people and wounded several others outside a school sheltering Palestinian refugees on Monday, health officials said, in the latest violence to overshadow a fragile ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.

Before the attack, several Palestinians were involved in clashes with members of the Israeli-backed militia, who they said attacked the school in an attempt to kidnap several people, said medics and residents, reporting Al Arabiya from Reuters (7/4).

Amid the clashes, east of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, Israeli drones fired two missiles into the area, killing at least 10 people and wounding several others, they added.

It was not immediately clear how many civilians were killed in the attack, which hit a densely populated neighborhood mostly inhabited by Palestinian refugees.

Ahmed al-Maghazi, an eyewitness, said their area was attacked by Israeli-backed militiamen operating in an area bordering on territory controlled by Israeli forces, before the militiamen opened fire.

"Residents are trying to defend their homes, but the occupation forces are directly targeting them," he told Reuters.

Separately, a leader of one of the Israeli-backed militias said in a video, which Reuters was unable to immediately verify, that they had killed about five Hamas members.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which calls groups operating in Israeli-controlled territory "Israeli collaborators."

Earlier on Monday, Israeli airstrikes killed a Palestinian and wounded a child as they traveled on a motorcycle in Gaza City, medics said.

Medical officials said Israeli forces killed another Palestinian when they fired at a vehicle in central Gaza, bringing the death toll on Monday to at least 12.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the three incidents on Monday.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, and Israel have blamed each other for violations of a ceasefire that began last October.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli fire had killed at least 700 people since the ceasefire began. Israel said four soldiers had been killed by militants in Gaza during the same period.

The current conflict in Gaza was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian militant group led by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and 251 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli calculations.

Israel responded by launching air raids, blockades and ground operations in Gaza.

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip announced today that the number of deaths as a result of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip has risen to 72,302 and another 172,090 have been injured since the start of the attack on October 7, 2023, quoted from WAFA.

The sources reported that hospitals in the Gaza Strip received seven dead and 17 others injured in the past 24 hours.

Furthermore, the data from these sources shows that the total number of Palestinian civilians killed since the ceasefire on October 11 has increased to 723, and the total number of injured to 1,990, while 759 bodies have been found.

Israel has also destroyed most of the buildings in the Gaza Strip, displacing most of its residents, in many cases multiple times.