Israel killed at least three Palestinians, including two children, in heavy bombardment on Gaza City Tuesday when its troops launched a ground assault to seize a senior Hamas member.
Eyewitnesses reported around a dozen strikes Tuesday morning in western Gaza City, where the territory's civil defense agency said three people were killed.
Eight people were also wounded, according to the civil defense, while Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital confirmed it had received the bodies and the wounded.
The raid for a Hamas member in Gaza City was discovered during the operation Tuesday, prompting airstrikes to cover their withdrawal, Gaza officials said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said a senior Hamas member had been arrested, while Hamas official Ismail al-Thawabta said an Israeli special force had tried to carry out an operation in Gaza City before being detected.
According to Thawabta, director of the Gaza government media office, Israel then launched heavy airstrikes, killing and wounding several people.
An Israeli security official said the man detained is the head of Hamas' internal security service.
Some Israeli media reports said the raid may have been carried out by members of an Israeli-backed militia that operates from Israeli-controlled areas inside Gaza.
Witnesses said Israeli warplanes fired at least 12 missiles near the Katiba area in the west of Gaza City, an area crowded with displaced families.
At least three people – two children and a woman – were killed and several others wounded in the bombardment, medics said. Two vehicles were hit and reduced to twisted wreckage. Another child was killed in Israeli fire in central Gaza, medics said.
In a statement Tuesday, the Israeli military said it struck several targets in the Gaza Strip in order to remove so-called threats to Israeli security forces.
Katz did not provide details about the arrest operation or identify the Hamas member.
"This is our policy: we do not wait for threats, but rather pursue Hamas ... , thwart them, and destroy their ... infrastructure," said Katz, speaking from the Netiv HaAsara community near the northern Gaza border.
The outspoken minister boasted that due to Israeli strikes since the October 2023 Hamas incursion, nearly 70% of Gaza has been destroyed and under Israeli military control "with no residents, no tunnels, and no houses."
In a separate incident, medics said a girl, Israa al-Hissi, was killed and two other people were wounded when Israeli forces operating east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza opened fire on the area.
A U.S.-backed cease-fire that took effect in October 2025 halted Israel's large-scale attacks that had devastated the enclave, but it has not ended Israeli strikes. The military claims such operations are intended to prevent attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Hamas accuses Israel of repeatedly violating the cease-fire and undermining efforts to advance a broader plan by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war. The plan includes further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.
Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 1,318 people since the ceasefire came into force last October, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have died in the Palestinian enclave during the same period.
