Israel Strikes Gaza, Killing 19 Including Women And Children, After Saying Hamas Violated Deal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza as of midday Wednesday, according to hospital officials. Israel vowed to continue the attacks, saying it was responding to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that left one soldier seriously injured.

Among the Palestinians killed were five children, one 5 months old and one just 10 days old; seven women; and a paramedic, hospital officials said. They are the last Palestinians to die in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement. Israel’s deadly attacksIt entered into force on October 10, 2025.

The rising Palestinian death toll has rattled the US-backed ceasefire and led Palestinians in the region to say the war does not feel like it is over.

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

The agreement aimed to stop the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been going on for more than two years. Although the heaviest fighting has subsided, it has been marred by repeated incidents of violence.

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

The Israeli military has said its ongoing offensives are in response to violations by Hamas or attacks by militants on its soldiers, but dozens of civilians have been killed. Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and Qatar, recently condemned Israel’s “repeated violations” of the agreement.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to military policy, told The Associated Press that Israel struck the strip in response to gunfire from militants that seriously injured a reservist on Wednesday morning.

Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies, said that Israeli soldiers opened fire on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in northern Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most of them from the same family. Among the dead were two parents, their 10-day-old daughter, their 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother.

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

Mohammed Jaser, a relative of the family killed in Tuffah, said: “What did this child do? Was he affiliated with Hamas or Fatah? … Why are they killing children?” he asked.

“We don’t understand why this is happening to us. What are we doing? Where are we going? This is not life,” he said.

Two young children were seen kneeling over their father’s body as a woman told them to say goodbye.

“Kiss him,” the woman said to a young girl who knelt down and kissed her father’s cheeks.

Meanwhile, strikes continued.

Nasser hospital, which received the bodies, said three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in an attack on a family’s tent in Israel’s southern city of Khan Younis.

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

At least two people were killed and five others were injured in an attack on a tent in the Muwasi district of Khan Younis, according to a field hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent in the area.

The hospital said that among the dead was Hussein Hasan Hussein al Semieri, a Palestinian Red Crescent medical officer who was on duty at the time.

Although the fighting has not stopped, progress has been made on other parts of the ceasefire agreement.

Hamas released all its hostages, and in return Israel released several thousand Palestinians. Increasing amounts of humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza, Rafah border gate opened number of people crossingA new technocratic committee was appointed to run Gaza’s daily affairs.

But other key elements of the ceasefire appear to have stalled, including the deployment of the international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. The United States has not given a timeline for when these parts of the agreement will be completed.

More than 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, but it did not say how many of them were combatants or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are generally considered reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Magdy reported from Cairo. AP reporter Julia Frankel contributed from Jerusalem.