Palestinian Raed al-Khabba carries his 3-month-old daughter Mira al-Khabbaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
2026-02-04T08:44:00Z
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fire in Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians, most of them women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday, while Israel said militant gunfire had injured an Israeli soldier.
They were the latest Palestinian deaths since a ceasefire, which has been punctuated by deadly Israeli strikes, came into effect on Oct. 10, 2025.
More than 530 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the deal took effect, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The attacks and the escalating death toll have rocked the U.S.-backed truce and caused Palestinians in the strip to say it does not feel like the war has ended.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of the Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
Mediators have condemned the attacks and Hamas has called them violations of the deal, but Israel’s military says it is responding to Hamas violations or militant attacks on its soldiers. At least three soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire took hold.
Early Wednesday, Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family. They included two parents, their 10-day-old girl, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.
Israel’s military said its aircraft and armored units had returned fire after militants started shooting at troops, badly wounding a reservist soldier who was evacuated to a hospital. Israel called the militant attack a violation of the deal.
The military did not comment on other strikes that ticked up the death toll on Wednesday, including one on a family’s tent in the city of Khan Younis, which killed three people including a 12-year-old boy, said Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.
Tank shelling in Gaza City’s eastern neighborhood of Zaytoun killed another three Palestinians, according to Shifa Hospital, including a husband and his wife.
Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
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