Two separate air strikes struck police checkpoints in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least six Palestinians - three policemen and three civilians, including a girl - and injuring four others, local health officials and medics said. The attacks, which targeted checkpoints run by the Hamas-led police force, occurred despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that local authorities say has been in place for more than five months.
Medics reported that Israeli aircraft carried out the strikes on the two checkpoints. They identified three of the dead as members of the Hamas-led police force and said the remaining fatalities were civilian, among them a child. Four people were reported wounded in the same incidents.
The Israeli military did not immediately provide a comment on the reported strikes. Local health authorities in Gaza say that the military has been responsible for the deaths of over 680 Palestinians in the territory since the ceasefire with Hamas took effect in November.
Broader casualty figures cited by health officials place the overall death toll in the Gaza Strip at more than 72,000 since the larger war began in October 2023. Those figures are presented by local health authorities in the territory.
At the same time, Israel is engaged in an expanded regional confrontation. The country is reported to be waging a war alongside the United States against Iran while also conducting a new campaign against Hezbollah. Israeli forces have, according to the same reporting, invaded southern Lebanon as part of these operations.
Violence in Gaza has continued despite the ceasefire and against the backdrop of Israel's wider conflict with Iran. Health officials in Gaza additionally report that at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iran-related conflict began a month ago.
The incidents in Khan Younis add to an ongoing pattern of attacks and casualties that local health officials have been documenting. The reported strikes and their human cost occur within a complex, multi-front regional conflict environment and follow a period in which a ceasefire had been in effect between Israel and Hamas.