At least four Palestinians were killed and several others wounded when an Israeli airstrike struck a residential building sheltering displaced people in Gaza City's Nassr neighbourhood on Monday — an attack observers described as a further violation of the October ceasefire.
Emergency teams rushed the injured to nearby hospitals following the strike, witnesses and local media reported.
Casualties and official counts. Last week, Gaza's Government Media Office said Israel had breached the ceasefire 1,520 times since it took effect on October 10. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported 581 people killed and 1,553 wounded during that period.
On-the-ground reporting. Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim Al Khalili, reporting from Gaza City, said the damaged residential block had been used as a refuge for displaced families after it had been hit in earlier strikes. He characterized Israel's campaign as a "genocidal war" — language he used to describe the broader offensive — and said the latest strike had increased fear and uncertainty among residents.
"People have been forced to shelter in this partially damaged residential building due to the lack and scarcity of shelter because most of Gaza's residential buildings have been destroyed," Al Khalili said.
Al Khalili added that the attack had "spread panic" and left many wondering what might come next amid what he described as a deadly escalation by the Israeli military.
Other incidents reported on Monday
Local sources speaking to the Palestinian Wafa news agency said Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinian farmer Khaled Baraka east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
In a separate incident, the Israeli military reported it killed four fighters who emerged from a tunnel in southern Gaza and attacked its troops. Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida later described that encounter as "heroic resistance."
Hamas had said in late November that dozens of its fighters were holed up in tunnels beneath areas controlled by the Israeli military in southern Gaza. That situation was a key sticking point early in the ceasefire negotiations: Israel argued the fighters posed a security threat, while Hamas sought safe passage for them. The Israeli military says many of those fighters have since been killed during operations targeting tunnel networks near Rafah.
Humanitarian and security concerns. The strike on a building known to house displaced civilians, together with repeated reported breaches of the ceasefire, has heightened alarm among aid groups and residents who say shelter and basic services remain scarce across Gaza.
