Gaza women, children injured by Israeli military during shaky ceasefire, MSF says

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GENEVA (Reuters) -Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Friday that its medical teams in Gaza had treated Palestinian women and children this week for injuries from Israeli airstrikes and gunfire, almost six weeks into a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Since Wednesday, medical staff in northern and southern Gaza have treated women and children with open fractures and gunshot wounds to their limbs and heads, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, a charity also known as Doctors Without Borders.

MSF said that medical care had been provided in hospitals and clinics in Gaza City in the north and Rafah in the south.

A nine-year-old girl was treated on Wednesday at a Gaza City hospital for an injury to her face caused by gunfire from an Israeli drone, MSF said, citing a nurse in Gaza.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment when reached by Reuters for comment for this article. In the past, it has said that it does not intentionally target civilians.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel’s military pulled back to a so-called “yellow line”, leaving it in control of 53% of the Gaza Strip. Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban area, is under Hamas control. Rafah is under Israeli control.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeatedly violating the ceasefire, although it is still formally holding.

Israel’s military has said that since October 10 it has killed individuals it described as “terrorists” crossing the yellow line, and carried out strikes it has said were in retaliation for attacks on its soldiers.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 312 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since October 11.

The United Nations children’s agency said on Friday that at least 67 children have been killed in what it called conflict-related incidents since the ceasefire went into effect.

“Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters in Geneva.

UNICEF said on Thursday that a baby girl was killed in an airstrike in eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza, alongside her parents. On Wednesday, seven children were killed in airstrikes in Gaza City and the south, UNICEF said.

Israel’s military says three of its soldiers have been killed in attacks in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva; writing by Alexander Cornwell; editing by Mark Heinrih)