Three members of a single family, including a six-month-old infant, were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics said. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah received the bodies, and medical staff said roughly 10 people were wounded in the attack. The killing came amid near-daily Israeli operations inside Gaza despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed in October 2025, with Gaza health authorities saying nearly 900 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect. Talks aimed at a permanent end to the war have stalled, and both sides continue to accuse the other of violating the ceasefire.

The strike on the apartment in Nuseirat occurred before dawn on Sunday, hospital staff and medics said, and the bodies arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the early hours. Medics identified those killed as Mohammad Abu Mallouh, his wife Alaa Zaqlan, and their child Osama, Reuters reported. Hospital workers said about 10 other people were wounded in the same attack.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Sunday about the Nuseirat strike. Gaza health officials provided the casualty figures and Al-Aqsa staff spoke to reporters in Deir el-Balah about the wounded. International and local medical facilities in Gaza have continued to handle large numbers of casualties from strikes across the territory, with Al Shifa and several field hospitals stretched by the influx.

Wider strikes continued this week

The Nuseirat killing coincided with other Israeli operations across Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said an Israeli airstrike on Friday targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad, whom they described as a leader of Hamas’ Qassam brigades. AP reported that evening at least two strikes struck Gaza City, one hitting a residential building and another hitting a vehicle. AP said those strikes killed seven people and wounded dozens.

Netanyahu and Katz said the people targeted had been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that prompted Israel's larger offensive, and they warned Israel would continue to act against individuals it says were involved. Those remarks came as Israeli forces have carried out near-daily operations inside Gaza since the October 2023 offensive began, even after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire was agreed in October 2025.

Mastheads

Civilian toll, displacement, and strained hospitals

Journalists in Gaza described bombing on Sunday as people were fleeing under displacement orders. Reporting from Gaza said Israeli forces were demolishing homes and other civilian structures in eastern parts of the strip behind the area Israeli authorities call the Yellow Line, a buffer zone established during the conflict.

The Gaza Government Media Office said it had documented thousands of alleged violations in the first six months after the ceasefire, including air raids and shootings it said targeted civilians.

Human Rights Watch said this week that Gaza's humanitarian infrastructure remained in peril. Gaza health authorities say nearly 900 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, and they count more than 72,000 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its offensive in October 2023. Those health authority casualty figures have been widely cited in recent reporting and were acknowledged as broadly accurate by Israeli officials in January, according to accounts of the exchanges.

Medical workers across Gaza continue to grapple with the scale of the crisis. Al Shifa hospital and temporary field hospitals are treating the wounded while also managing the dead. Staff shortages, damaged facilities, and intermittent supplies have compounded the pressure on hospitals already overwhelmed by months of heavy fighting and repeated strikes.

The latest deaths in Nuseirat show how fragile the ceasefire has been on the ground. Even as ceasefire talks have produced pauses in broader fighting, localized strikes, demolitions, and displacement orders have continued, keeping civilian communities in a state of acute danger.

Related Articles

Medics and hospital staff identified the three killed in the Nuseirat strike as Mohammad Abu Mallouh, his wife Alaa Zaqlan, and their six-month-old child, Osama. Originally reported by AP.

This article was created with AI assistance.