Israeli attacks have killed 18 people, including four children, in Gaza while Israel halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian officials have said.
The Israeli military said tanks had fired on Gaza and airstrikes had been launched after a gunman shot at Israeli soldiers and seriously injured a reservist.
The attacks targeted Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis.
The attack comes days after Israeli strikes killed 32 people, including children, in the territory.
A Gaza health official said that Israel had also halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, two days after it had reopened, allowing a trickle of Palestinians to cross for the first time in months.
A spokesperson for the Red Crescent said patients had arrived at a hospital in Khan Younis in preparation for crossing Rafah for treatment, only to be informed that Israel had postponed the evacuations.
“They called the patients and said today there is no travel at all, the crossing is closed,” Raja’a Abu Teir, a Palestinian patient who was set to be evacuated, said at the hospital, where several patients were waiting in ambulances.
The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said in a statement that Rafah crossing remained open, but they had not received the necessary coordination details from the World Health Organization to facilitate the crossing.
Ambulances wait on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the October ceasefire that set out the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to stop fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.
Sixteen patients from Gaza and 40 of their escorts crossed into Egypt yesterday, Gazan medics said.
A Hamas police source said that at least 40 people crossed from Egypt to Gaza late yesterday.
In January, Mr Trump declared the start of the second phase of the ceasefire where the sides would negotiate the shattered enclave’s future governance and reconstruction.
Key issues like the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the over 50% of Gaza they currently occupy and the disarmament of Hamas remain unresolved, while the fragile ceasefire has been marked by near-daily violence.
Since the start of the ceasefire, Israeli fire has killed at least 530 people, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s military killed more than 71,000 Palestinians during its latest war on Gaza, according to Gazan health authorities, displaced most of its population, and left much of the strip in ruins.
The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the latest war killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli tallies.