Gaza civil defence says toddler among 10 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza City: Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that a toddler was among 10 people killed in separate Israeli strikes in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

Violence continues despite a ceasefire in the Gaza war that came into effect on October 10.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said “four people were killed, including a child and several others were injured… in a strike targeting a police vehicle” in Gaza City.

He identified the child as three-year-old Yahya al-Mallahi.

Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the bodies of the dead.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it was looking into the details.

In a statement, Gaza’s interior ministry said Israeli warplanes had “targeted a police vehicle” in the city centre, “causing several deaths and injuries”.

Bassal also said another person had been killed by Israeli fire in the northern Beit Lahia area earlier on Tuesday.

AFP footage showed Palestinians gathering around the body of a man who was then placed on a stretcher and carried away to be buried through streets lined with rubble.

On Tuesday evening, the civil defence agency reported that multiple people were killed in another strike near an intersection in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

The Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving five bodies from an Israeli bombing in Al-Shati.

The military did not offer an immediate response regarding that latest strike.

The October ceasefire followed more than two years of war after the Hamas October 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel.

At least 757 have been killed in Gaza since the truce came into effect, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army says five of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza over the same period.

Media restrictions and limited access by Israel in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.