Seven killed, 17 wounded in Israeli strikes on displaced people in Gaza

Seven Palestinians were killed and 17 others wounded, some critically, in three separate Israeli attacks in northern and central Gaza on Sunday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

The attacks added to a growing toll in Gaza despite a ceasefire announced on Oct. 11. Since then, 648 people have been killed and more than 1,725 wounded by Israeli shelling and intermittent gunfire across the territory, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

In western Gaza City, a paramedic told Al Manassa that crews recovered three bodies and at least five wounded after Israeli surveillance drones fired two successive missiles at a crowd Sunday evening in an area packed with displaced people’s tents and street vendors.

An eyewitness said a drone was heard flying low before it fired two missiles directly beside a gathering of civilians on Gamal Abdel Nasser Street, killing the three victims instantly. He said the strike hit about an hour before the Ramadan iftar meal, when the area was packed with displaced families and passersby, and that children were among those wounded by shrapnel.

Earlier on Sunday, a young man was killed by Israeli sniper fire in northern Gaza while standing in front of his tent, another eyewitness told Al Manassa.

Hours later, around midnight Monday, Israeli military vehicles fired five artillery rounds at tents sheltering displaced people in the Al-Sawarha area southwest of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people, including two girls, a medical source at Al-Awda Hospital told Al Manassa.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the hospital also received 10 wounded from the shelling, including three children, and that some were in critical condition after being hit directly by shrapnel.

An eyewitness said the shells hit the tents without warning about three hours before the Ramadan suhoor meal, killing and wounding displaced people and destroying their tents and belongings. He said residents still felt unsafe despite the ceasefire and continued to face shelling and attacks almost daily.

For the ninth straight day, the Israeli occupation army has kept the Rafah land crossing closed to patients traveling in both directions. Israeli authorities had said the crossing would remain shut until further notice for security reasons after Israel and the United States announced a broad war on Iran in late February.

For a third day, Israel allowed a limited number of humanitarian aid and commercial trucks to enter through the Karm Abu Salem commercial crossing southeast of Gaza. About 100 trucks entered on Sunday, according to a source at Gaza’s crossings and borders authority.

The source said the trucks included diesel shipments for international organizations as well as tents and food supplies, but that Israel continued to block cooking gas shipments for the ninth consecutive day.