At least four Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli strikes and gunfire across Gaza on Thursday, according to health officials in the territory.
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a vehicle killed at least one person. Photographs from the scene showed emergency crews attempting to extinguish the burning vehicle.
Another strike killed a Palestinian man travelling on a bicycle in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
A third man was killed near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Palestinian medics also reported that a woman was killed by gunfire near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out strikes against people it identified as Hamas militants in Khan Younis, Nuseirat and Gaza City. The military told Reuters it was not aware of the reported shooting near Jabalia.
Gaza’s Hamas-led Interior Ministry separately said that one of the Israeli strikes killed a non-commissioned officer from its drug-control police department and injured another officer while their vehicle was returning from an assignment in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood.
The incidents come amid continuing tension despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that has been in place for approximately a year.
Israel says Hamas has been rearming and planning or carrying out attacks in violation of the ceasefire agreement. Hamas denies those allegations and accuses Israel of preventing implementation of provisions covering Israeli withdrawal and Gaza’s reconstruction.
Negotiators have still not reached agreement on some of the most difficult provisions of the peace arrangement, including Hamas disarmament and the extent and timing of Israeli troop withdrawal.
WHAT WE KNOW: Israeli forces acknowledge strikes in three of the areas where deaths were reported. Accounts of individual casualties and their identities come primarily from Palestinian medical and local authorities and remain subject to further verification.
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