Israeli military strikes killed at least eleven Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, including a three-year-old boy and a fourteen-year-old teenager, in attacks that highlight the continued fragility of a ceasefire agreement that has been in place since October 2024.
In the deadliest single incident, four people were killed when an Israeli aircraft struck a police vehicle in central Gaza City. Among the dead was Yahya Al-Malahi, aged three, who was with his father returning from a relative's wedding when the strike occurred near the Timraz crossroad. "He should be wearing a wedding suit at his cousin's today, but instead, he wore a shroud stained with blood," said his cousin. A police officer also died in the strike, and nine bystanders were wounded, some critically, according to Gaza's Interior Ministry. Separately, a fourteen-year-old, identified as Adam Ahmed Halaa, was killed by Israeli fire near Jabalia in northern Gaza. Later in the evening, an Israeli drone strike involving two missiles hit a group of people near a café in the Shati refugee camp — a densely populated area in northern Gaza City — killing at least five more people, according to medics at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical facility.
The incidents come despite a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States that took effect in October 2024, pausing more than two years of intensive conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that governs the Gaza Strip. While the truce slowed large-scale hostilities, Israeli forces have retained control of a depopulated buffer zone covering well over half of the territory. Israel says its ongoing strikes target armed militants and aim to prevent attacks, and in one incident on Tuesday its military said it killed a man who had approached the armistice line while armed. Palestinian authorities and Hamas dispute this framing, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and security personnel to sow instability.
More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, with an additional 2,111 wounded, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Since the conflict began on 7 October 2023, the ministry says a total of 72,336 Palestinians have been killed. Four Israeli soldiers have died during the ceasefire period. Both sides have accused each other of violations.
The pattern of civilian casualties raises urgent questions about the viability of the existing truce framework. With negotiations over a more permanent agreement stalled and daily strikes continuing, humanitarian organisations and international observers warn that without enforceable mechanisms, the ceasefire risks collapsing entirely — leaving Gaza's civilian population, already devastated by two years of war, further exposed to violence.