Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in separate strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, hours after the military said it had hit the site of a failed militant rocket launch, the latest violence to jeopardize the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least three people and wounded three others, including children, in a tent in the western area of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Another strike killed a person east of the city, near where Israeli forces operate.
Later on Thursday, medics said a man was killed in an Israeli strike at a school, which also housed displaced families in Jabalia north of the enclave, while another strike killed another person in a tent near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, taking Thursday’s death toll to at least seven.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the death reports.
After shells and shrapnel hit her home in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area on Thursday, 11-year-old Hamsa Housou was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Outside the hospital mortuary, her uncle, Khamis Housou, told The Associated Press that the family had returned home on Oct. 11, 2025, a day after the ceasefire went into effect.
Housou, who said his niece had dreams of becoming a doctor, told how early on Thursday, he heard screams as Israeli troops combed the area where shells and shrapnel hit. He ran from his apartment toward the home where Hamsa lived and found her lying on the floor.
A woman and a girl cry as they attend the funeral of a Palestinian who was killed in an Israeli strike, according to medics, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday. (Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
He carried the girl to the nearest clinic, only to find the ambulance there had a flat tire. They waited about 15 minutes, he said, before taking her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“They say that there is a ceasefire and that the war on Gaza has stopped. Is this only through the media, while every day there are explosions and fire belts?” he asked. “Shooting does not stop. Where is the ceasefire?”
Housou said that Falluja, the neighbourhood in Jabalia where the family lives, has been subjected to daily shooting by Israeli troops, despite being on the western side of the yellow ceasefire line.
Israel’s military said it was not aware of any strike-related casualties in the area on Thursday. The military has previously said that any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.
Israel says it struck Gaza rocket launch site
Earlier, the military said it had struck a launch site shortly after the firing of a rocket that had failed to reach Israeli territory. It accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire twice in the past 24 hours. A source from the Palestinian militant group told Reuters it was checking the allegation.
A ceasefire agreed to in October has not progressed beyond the first phase, under which major fighting stopped, Israel withdrew from less than half of Gaza and Hamas fighters released live hostages and human remains in return for detained Palestinians.
Under future phases yet to be hammered out, U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan envisages Hamas disarming, Israel pulling out further and an internationally backed administration rebuilding Gaza.
But little progress has been made on the next steps. More than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, and nearly all of Gaza’s more than two million people now live in makeshift homes or damaged buildings in a sliver of territory where Israeli troops have withdrawn and Hamas has reasserted control.
WATCH | Trump, Netanyahu met last month to discuss Gaza ceasefire deal:
Trump says he isn’t concerned with anything Israel is doing in Gaza
U.S. President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss next steps for the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump said there will be hell to pay for Hamas if it doesn’t disarm but said Israel withdrawing forces was ‘a separate subject.’
Israel is awaiting the handover of the final body due under the initial stage of the truce. An Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would not move to the next phase of the ceasefire until Hamas returns the remains of the last Israeli hostage still held in Gaza.
It has yet to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, another condition of the U.S.-backed plan, saying it will do so only once the remains are returned.
Hamas and Israel have accused each other of major breaches of the ceasefire deal and remain far apart on the more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase.
Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes and targeted operations across Gaza. The Israeli military said it views “with utmost severity” any attempts by militant groups in Gaza to attack Israel.
Deaths mount amid truce deal
A Hamas official told Reuters on Thursday the group had documented more than 1,100 Israeli violations of the ceasefire since October and had urged mediators to intervene. The violations include killings, injuries, artillery and aerial strikes, home demolitions and detention of people, he said.
Hamas has refused to disarm and has been reasserting its control. Israel has said it will resume military action if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully.
At least 425 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly three months since the ceasefire took effect, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday.
The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 71,395, the Health Ministry said, with another 171,287 wounded.
The phased ceasefire agreement remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Wednesday that it had been notified that teams had recommenced searching for Ran Gvili. The 24-year-old police officer was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed about 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that triggered the war, according to Israeli figures.