Israeli Air Strike Kills One In Northern Gaza

An Israeli air strike has killed one person and wounded five others in northern Gaza, authorities said.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported on Wednesday that the Israeli strike targeted a three-wheeled tuk-tuk transport vehicle near the Western Roundabout in Beit Lahiya.

The deceased was Mohanad Saada, whose body was transferred alongside five injured individuals to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency that Saada was part of a municipal maintenance team returning from repairing a water well damaged during earlier military operations.

“It is true that Israeli airstrikes and assassinations had almost completely ceased for over a week, but today the occupation resumed its aerial bombardment,” Bassal told the AFP news agency.

The Israeli military said that the operation targeted a Hamas commander who was actively planning attacks against Israeli forces.

The deceased was Mohanad Saada, whose body was transferred alongside five injured individuals to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency that Saada was part of a municipal maintenance team returning from repairing a water well damaged during earlier military operations.

“It is true that Israeli airstrikes and assassinations had almost completely ceased for over a week, but today the occupation resumed its aerial bombardment,” Bassal told the AFP news agency.

The Israeli military said that the operation targeted a Hamas commander who was actively planning attacks against Israeli forces.

Despite the recent reduction in heavy Israeli air raids following international diplomatic talks, Israeli forces have continued to carry out ground-level shelling and drone attacks.

Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza reported at least two other Israeli attacks on Wednesday, including a quadcopter drone attack in Khan Younis in southern Gaza that wounded a father and critically wounded his son, as well as an artillery shelling attack near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The father of the critically wounded 13-year-old boy told Al Jazeera that his son had shrapnel wounds.

“I had bought some falafel, and I was walking, and suddenly there was something like a bomb that exploded,” the father said. “People scattered. I found my son thrown on the ground, bleeding from his head. There was shrapnel in his head and in his leg, and he lay there in his blood.”

The attacks came days after Israel said it rejected the latest version of United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

Trump announced a “historic” 15-point plan drafted by the Board of Peace that entailed “the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza”, which he called “a monumental step toward lasting peace and security”.

Hamas has endorsed the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected the document on Sunday.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,250 ⁠Palestinians in Gaza, most of them ⁠civilians, since a US-backed “ceasefire” took effect in October.

At least 73,388 Palestinians have been killed and 174,259 others wounded since Israel launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Al Jazeera