Israeli Strikes Across Gaza Kill at Least 28; Hamas Calls It a 'Dangerous Escalation'

Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed at least 28 Palestinians and wounded dozens more, officials in the enclave said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the raids targeted Hamas positions after what it described as gunfire at Israeli soldiers operating in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, calling the incident a breach of the ceasefire.

Hamas rejected the IDF account and condemned the strikes as "a dangerous escalation," urging international pressure on Israel to respect the truce and halt attacks on civilians. Gaza health and rescue authorities reported that nine children were among the dead and at least 77 people were wounded in Wednesday's strikes.

Video footage from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City showed crowds gathering around arriving ambulances and relatives looking at victims brought in after the strikes. Rescuers and health officials described harrowing scenes at hospital facilities as teams worked to treat the wounded and recover the dead.

The deadliest single strike reported on Wednesday hit the Zaytun neighborhood in eastern Gaza, where local civil defense teams said 10 people were killed, including a woman and a child. Another strike west of Khan Younis reportedly struck a group of civilians inside a UNRWA club. UNRWA is the United Nations agency that provides services to Palestine refugees in the region.

This was the third significant flare-up since a ceasefire took effect in October; earlier escalations on October 19 and October 28 were each preceded by attacks on Israeli soldiers and together resulted in roughly 150 Palestinian deaths and three Israeli military fatalities. Despite these incidents, the ceasefire has largely remained in place.

Separately, Israel said it struck sites in southern Lebanon it identified as Hezbollah weapons storage facilities. Lebanese state media reported damage to several houses but no casualties from those strikes. A day earlier, an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon killed 13 people, according to Lebanese health authorities; the IDF said it had targeted a Hamas compound it alleged was being used to plan attacks.

Background and Ceasefire Framework

The current conflict began after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants on Israel, which resulted in large numbers of casualties and hostages. Since then, Palestinian health authorities in Gaza say more than 69,000 people have been killed in the enclave, many of them women and children.

Under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire framework, Hamas agreed to hand over remaining hostages — alive and dead — while Israel agreed to withdraw from some areas of Gaza and release a number of Palestinian detainees. Hamas has since released all living hostages and returned the bodies of all but three of those killed, officials said.

IDF statement: The strikes targeted operatives and infrastructure linked to attacks on Israeli forces. None of our troops were injured, the military said.

Hamas response: The movement called the Israeli response a "dangerous escalation" and accused Israel of using the incident to justify further crimes against Palestinian civilians.

The situation remains tense and fluid. International actors have pressed both sides to avoid further escalations while efforts continue to implement longer-term measures for reconstruction and stability in Gaza.