Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. AP
Early on Wednesday, Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, killing at least 11 people, most of them members of the same family.
Those killed included two parents, their 10-day-old daughter, her five-month-old cousin, and their grandmother, the Shifa Hospital said after receiving the bodies.
Tank shelling in Gaza City’s eastern Zaytoun neighbourhood killed three more Palestinians, including a husband and wife, according to the hospital.
Medical sources also said four others, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed and several people wounded when Israeli strikes hit tents for displaced people in the Qizan Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis.
The Israeli occupation army claimed on Wednesday that it carried out the strikes after gunfire targeting its troops wounded an officer beyond the Yellow Line, where Israeli troops are stationed inside the strip.
The Israeli attacks on Gaza come as Tel Aviv continues to disrupt the Trump truce deal, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States in October, killing at least 529 Palestinians and injuring more than 1,460 others, mostly women and children.
The ongoing Israeli attacks and the rising death toll have effectively undermined the truce, with many Palestinians in Gaza saying it does not feel as though the genocidal war on the strip that started in October 2023 has ended.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of the Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
Israeli hell at Rafah crossing
The latest Israeli escalation comes three days after Israel agreed under pressure from Cairo and international mediators to a limited and closely controlled reopening of the Rafah border crossing, which was stipulated under the truce deal to happen months ago.
However, Israeli soldiers maintained strict and humiliating inspection procedures for people returning to Gaza.
Palestinian women among the few people let back into Gaza have described being blindfolded, handcuffed, and interrogated by Israeli forces as they tried to get home.
Their journey from Egypt on Monday through the frontier post and across the "yellow line" zone controlled by Israel and an allied Palestinian militia group involved lengthy delays and the confiscation of gifts, including toys, one of the women told Reuters.
"It was a journey of horror, humiliation and oppression," said 56-year-old Huda Abu Abed by phone from the tent her family is living in at Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Raed Al-Nims, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said that since the crossing was reopened on Monday, 50 patients and wounded people, and 84 companions, have been allowed to leave Gaza. Seven patients departed on the first day.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas accused Israel on Tuesday of continuing to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying there has been no improvement despite announcements that the ceasefire agreement has entered its second phase.
Hazem Qassem, the group’s spokesperson, said the extensive restrictions expose "the falsity of Israeli and the civil-military coordination centre's claims" regarding the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, asserting that the actual figures are less than half of those announced.
Qassem said the humanitarian situation is worsening as a new low-pressure weather system brings cold and rain, leaving displaced people in tents that provide little protection. He added that Israel continues to allow only limited amounts of fuel and cooking gas into Gaza, which he said violates the ceasefire agreement.
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