Israeli airstrikes kill 25 Palestinians in Gaza, rattling ceasefire, medics say

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By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -At least 25 Palestinians were killed in four Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in a part of Gaza under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities said.

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.

Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes as a dangerous escalation, and urged the United States to “honor its stated commitments and exert immediate pressure on Israel to enforce the ceasefire and halt its attacks.”

But a U.S. official, who spoke anonymously, said Hamas was aiming to break the ceasefire and not fulfill its commitment to demilitarize.

“These desperate tactics will fail,” the official said.

INCIDENTS TEST FRAGILE CEASEFIRE

Medics said 10 people were killed in the Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun, two in the Shejaia suburb to the east, and the rest in two separate attacks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

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

All four 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 305 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.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Howard Gollerm additional reporting by Steve Holland, editing by Ed Osmond, Mark Heinrich, Rod Nickel)