CAIRO, 11 Jan (Reuters) – Israeli gunfire killed at least three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the enclave, according to local health authorities, as tensions rose due to the ongoing violence since the October ceasefire.
Doctors said that one Palestinian was killed in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, in an area under Palestinian control, while the other two were killed in southern Gaza, in the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, an area that Israel still occupies.
The Israeli army said forces fired at a ‘terrorist’ who crossed the area under its control in the northern Gaza Strip, posing an immediate threat. One target was identified, it added.
There were no comments about the incident in the southern part of the enclave.
Fighting has largely eased since Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October, two years after the start of the war, but they have not ceased entirely. Israel and Hamas exchanged accusations of violations of the accord.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the group asked mediators to intervene to halt ‘the daily killings by Israel that aim to derail the ceasefire agreement’.
More than 440 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health authorities, have been killed since the truce, as well as three Israeli soldiers.
(By Nidal al-Mughrabi)
