At least 29 Palestinians were killed and others wounded early Saturday in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, hospitals in the enclave said, marking one of the highest tolls since the October cease-fire aimed at stopping Israeli attacks.
The series of strikes also came a day before the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt is set to open in Gaza's southernmost city. Israel has kept all of the territory's border crossings have been closed throughout almost the entire war. The Rafah crossing is a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory, where the majority of medical infrastructure has been destroyed.
Hamas called Saturday's strikes "a renewed flagrant violation" and urged the United States and other mediating countries to push Israel to stop strikes.
A military official, speaking Saturday on the condition of anonymity in line with protocol, could not comment on the specific targets, but said Israel carried out overnight and Saturday strikes in response to what the army said were ceasefire violations the day before.
Since the ceasefire took effect in early October, Israeli actions have killed 524 Palestinians and wounded 1,360 others, committing 1,450 violations, according to the Gaza media office on Saturday.
Five Palestinians, three children and two women, were killed, and others injured in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential apartment in the Rimal neighborhood of western Gaza City, medical sources told Anadolu Agency (AA) Saturday.
Seven more Palestinians, a man, his three sons, and three of his young grandchildren, were killed in another Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to paramedics at Nasser Hospital in the city. An airstrike also hit a police station in Gaza City, killing and wounding at least eight.
Several Palestinians were also injured in an Israeli strike that targeted a residential apartment in the al-Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, eyewitnesses said.
Israeli fighter jets also carried out an airstrike on al-Jalaa Street northwest of Gaza City, as well as two strikes east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, with no casualties reported.
In a related development, the media office said the army has arrested 50 Palestinians since the agreement came into effect, detaining them from areas far from the "yellow line" and from within residential neighborhoods.
Regarding the humanitarian protocol, the office said Israel has allowed the entry of 28,927 aid, commercial, and fuel trucks out of a total of 66,600 trucks stipulated under the agreement, reflecting a compliance rate of 43%.
The agreement ended a two-year Israeli war that killed more than 71,600 Palestinians and wounded 171,300. The assault has destroyed roughly 90% of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza, with U.N. estimates placing reconstruction costs at about $70 billion.
Rafah's opening, limited at first, marks the first major step in the second phase of the U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Reopening borders is among the challenging issues on the agenda for the phase now underway, which also include demilitarizing the strip after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and installing a new government to oversee reconstruction.
