Medical sources reported that five Palestinians were killed and others were injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted a group of civilians southwest of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
In the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said four Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a tent of displaced people in the al-Faluja area, west of Jabalia town.
In another development, the Israeli occupation army carried out extensive demolition operations on Palestinian homes northeast of the Jabalia camp and in the vicinity of Al-Radhi Street in Beit Lahia, coinciding with heavy artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli military vehicles.
Artillery also shelled the eastern areas of the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza, the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, and the city of Khan Yunis in the south, in parallel with gunfire in the Al-Shuja'iya and Al-Zaytoun neighborhoods in eastern Gaza City and north of the city of Rafah.
The escalation came after Israel claimed to have spotted Palestinian militants near its forces in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said in a statement Saturday evening that its forces spotted militants "emerging from an underground structure and entering the rubble of a building east of the Green Line, near the forces" operating in the area. The statement added that an Israeli aircraft attacked the building, killing two, while forces continued to search the area for two others.
The Israeli army attached to its statement a video showing a group of people carrying blankets in a devastated, indistinct area.
Since the agreement came into effect, Palestinians have been heading to their destroyed homes near the so-called "yellow line" to retrieve blankets and clothing from under the rubble, braving the bitter cold, according to eyewitnesses and local sources. This line separates the areas where the Israeli army is deployed, which constitute approximately 53% of the Gaza Strip's territory in the east, from the areas in the west where Palestinians are permitted to move.
Israel has previously escalated its operations in the Gaza Strip based on similar claims of militants emerging from tunnels, particularly in the southern city of Rafah, which it controls under the agreement. This has been used as a pretext for launching military operations that result in deaths and injuries.
Israel has committed hundreds of violations of the ceasefire agreement, which, as of Saturday, have resulted in the deaths of 591 Palestinians and injuries to 1,598 others, according to the Ministry of Health.
With American support, Israel launched a two-year war of extermination in Gaza on October 8, 2023, which left more than 72,000 Palestinian martyrs and 171,000 wounded, most of them children and women, and caused destruction to 90% of the civilian infrastructure.
