Israeli airstrikes killed at least 11 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Friday, health officials said, as the military said the attacks were launched in response to a failed rocket fired from the enclave, underscoring the fragility of a cease-fire that has stalled at its first phase.
Medics said four people, including children, were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced families in western Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Three others were wounded. Another person was killed in a separate strike east of the city, near areas where Israeli forces continue to operate.
In northern Gaza, a strike hit a school in Jabalia that was housing displaced residents, killing one man, according to medics.
Another strike killed a person in a tent near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Four more people were killed in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, officials said.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas members, rocket launch pits and what it described as “terror infrastructure” after a projectile was launched from the Gaza City area toward Israel.
The army said the rocket fell short and landed near a hospital in Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the cease-fire. A source from the Palestinian group told Reuters it was reviewing the allegation.
Health officials said at least one child was among those killed in northern Gaza, and hospital staff later confirmed that the day’s strikes included an 11-year-old girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a teenage girl and two boys sheltering in a tent camp.
At least a dozen others were wounded.
The cease-fire agreed in October halted major fighting but has not moved beyond its initial phase.
Under that stage, Hamas released hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners, while Israel pulled back from less than half of Gaza.
Talks on subsequent phases, meant to include Hamas’s disarmament, further Israeli withdrawals and Gaza’s reconstruction, have made little headway.
More than 400 Palestinians have been reported killed since the truce took effect.
Nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents remain displaced, living in damaged buildings or makeshift shelters in areas vacated by Israeli troops, where Hamas has since reasserted control.
Israel is awaiting the return of the remains of the final hostage due under the first phase of the deal. An Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not proceed to the next stage until the body is handed over.
Israel has also refused to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a key condition of the U.S.-backed plan, until the remains are returned.
Both sides accuse each other of serious violations.
Israel has continued targeted strikes across Gaza, saying it views any militant attacks “with utmost severity.” A Hamas official said the group has documented more than 1,100 Israeli violations since October, including killings, airstrikes, home demolitions and detentions, and has urged mediators to intervene.
Hamas has rejected calls to disarm, while Israel has warned it will resume full military operations if disarmament does not occur peacefully.
The current war began with Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, incursion into southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive since then.
The renewed violence comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce next week the formation of a “Board of Peace” to oversee the cease-fire. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement, said the board would be a central pillar of Trump’s stalled Middle East peace plan.
Netanyahu said Thursday that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov would serve as the board’s designated director-general.
Mladenov, a former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister, served as the U.N.’s Middle East peace envoy from 2015 to 2020 and maintained working relations with both Israel and Hamas during that period.
Under Trump’s proposal, the board would supervise a technocratic Palestinian administration, oversee Hamas’s disarmament, coordinate an international security force, manage further Israeli troop withdrawals and lead Gaza’s reconstruction.
U.S. officials acknowledge little progress has been made on any of those fronts.
Egyptian and European Union leaders meeting in Cairo on Thursday urged the deployment of an international stabilization force.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the situation in Gaza as “extremely severe,” saying Hamas continues to refuse disarmament as the cease-fire teeters.
