Israeli fire kills six in Gaza and the West Bank, medics say

RAMALLAH, The West Bank: Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip on Monday (Mar 30), local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago.

Israeli forces also killed two people in the occupied West Bank in two separate incidents, Palestinian health officials said.

Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it had struck and killed members of a Hamas armed cell it had identified in the northern Gaza Strip to remove the threat to its troops operating in the area.

Later on Monday, another Israeli airstrike killed one person and wounded six others outside a local community kitchen in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza began in Oct 2023, local health officials say, following an attack on Israel by Hamas-led gunmen in which some 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies.

Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violations of a ceasefire agreed last October. The Gaza health ministry said Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since the ceasefire. Israel said four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.

Israel, along with the US, is also now engaged in a conflict with Iran, while Israeli forces have also invaded southern Lebanon in a new campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Health officials in Gaza say at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iran conflict began a month ago.

WEST BANK VIOLENCE

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said Israeli forces had shot and killed a 22-year-old man near the city of Hebron on Monday. They said soldiers took the body away.

Palestinian security sources identified the dead man as Ramzi Awawada and accused Israeli soldiers of leaving him to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him.

The Israeli military said its forces had shot and killed a Palestinian who ran towards them holding a knife.

Separately, it said forces operating near the city of Tulkarm fired at a Palestinian who accelerated his vehicle toward them, posing a threat to their safety, and "neutralised him". The soldiers were not hurt, it added.

Later, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed the driver's death, adding that the army had taken away his body.

Rights groups and medics say Israeli settlers are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the Iran war to attack Palestinians in the West Bank, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly.

Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the conflict began on Feb 28, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.