At least 29 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Wednesday evening as Israeli warplanes launched a wave of airstrikes across Gaza, targeting residential buildings and tent encampments sheltering displaced civilians, according to a medical source at the Health Ministry who spoke to Al Manassa.
The strikes began hours after the Israeli military claimed its forces came under fire east of Khan Younis, near the so-called “yellow line” separating Israeli troops from Hamas-controlled areas. No Israeli casualties were reported.
The Israeli military, said in a statement that the incident constituted a “violation of the ceasefire agreement” reached last October between Hamas and Israel, claiming that the attacks were against “Hamas targets.” The occupation army accused the Palestinian group of opening fire towards an area where troops were operating in Gaza.
Following the statement, both manned and unmanned aircraft carried out a series of coordinated raids. The Israeli army said the attacks targeted “Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip” in Gaza.
Families killed in shelter raids
The first strikes hit around 6 pm, striking a building affiliated with the Ministry of Religious Endowments in the Asqula area near Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza. The building had been sheltering displaced families, leading to the deaths of 10 civilians, including all five members of a single family who had taken refuge in a concrete room after their home was destroyed in earlier fighting, according to a family member speaking to Al Manassa.
In separate airstrikes on tents housing displaced residents in the western fringes of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, two young men and a woman were killed. A source at Al-Shifa Hospital told Al Manassa that dozens of people were admitted with injuries, most of them children.
In northern Gaza, Israeli drones dropped explosive ordnance near tent encampments in Jabalia and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods. Several civilians were injured by shrapnel and transported to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
Further south, the strikes intensified in and around Khan Younis, where over six buildings were targeted. A journalist in the area confirmed 15 fatalities and dozens of injuries. Victims were taken to Nasser Medical Complex and the Palestine Red Crescent’s Al-Amal Hospital.
The journalist said strikes in Al-Mawasi—designated as a humanitarian zone—hit tents sheltering displaced families, while additional raids destroyed homes in the Al-Amal and Qizan Al-Najjar districts without prior warning.
Simultaneously, explosions were reported in eastern Khan Younis, in areas under direct Israeli military control. No injuries were reported from those blasts.
Hamas condemns strikes as “massacre”
In a statement on Telegram, Hamas denounced the attacks as a “dangerous escalation” and accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to resume “genocidal campaigns against our people.”
The group rejected the Israeli army’s claim of coming under fire, calling it a pretext for renewed violations of the October ceasefire. Hamas said it has documented over 300 Palestinian deaths since the truce began, alongside ongoing home demolitions and the closure of the Rafah border crossing.
The statement called on the US administration to pressure Israel to halt the assault and urged Egyptian, Qatari, and Turkish mediators to enforce the ceasefire terms, which they helped guarantee.
Israeli military actions in Gaza have continued sporadically despite the ceasefire’s first-phase implementation, which includes limited prisoner and body exchanges between Hamas and Israel. Talks over the second phase, focusing on governance arrangements, Hamas disarmament, and a full Israeli military withdrawal, have yet to yield progress.
