Israeli airstrikes kill 10 Palestinians in Gaza, rattling ceasefire, medics say

Cairo: Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a part of the enclave under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities said.

Medics said two people were killed in Shejaia suburb east of Gaza City and four in the nearby suburb of Zeitoun. A third airstrike killed four Palestinians in Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza.

The Israeli military said its forces struck Hamas targets across Gaza after members of the Palestinian militant group fired on its troops in violation of the nearly six-week-old ceasefire. No Israeli forces were injured.

Repeated shooting incidents have pointed to the fragility of the ceasefire. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for what both call violations of the US-brokered truce, the first stage of President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for a post-war Gaza.

All three attacks were far beyond an agreed-upon imaginary "yellow line" separating the areas under Israeli and Palestinian control, according to medics, witnesses and Palestinian media.

The Zeitoun attack was on a building belonging to Muslim religious authorities and the Khan Younis attack was on a U.N.-run club, both of which house displaced families.

The October 10 ceasefire in the two-year Gaza war has eased the conflict, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza’s ruins. Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased.

But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 290 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in one day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops.

Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began and it has targeted scores of fighters.