At least four Palestinians were killed Thursday when Israeli airstrikes struck the Gaza Strip, the territory’s civil defense agency said, in the latest violence despite an ongoing cease-fire.
It came as Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened for a limited number of people, for the first time since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran at the end of February.
The civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, said strikes in two neighborhoods of Gaza City killed a total of four people.
Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City said it received two bodies following an Israeli strike on the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City.
Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital said it had also received two bodies following an Israeli drone strike on the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.
When asked by AFP about the two incidents, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
In a separate statement, the Israeli military said it had struck and killed Muhammad Abu Shaleh, the military intelligence commander of Hamas's Khan Younis Brigade.
It said Shaleh had "operated in violation of the cease-fire agreement to rehabilitate the organization's capabilities in the Gaza Strip and planned to carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel."
Violence has persisted in Gaza despite a cease-fire, which came into effect on Oct. 10, with both Israel and Hamas regularly accusing each other of violations.
On Sunday, Gaza's Interior Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on a police vehicle killed nine officers, with the civil defense reporting another four people killed in an earlier strike, marking one of the heaviest casualties in a single day in weeks.
Gaza's Health Ministry says at least 677 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the truce.
The Israeli military says at least five of its soldiers have been killed in the same period since Oct. 10.
