Israeli strike in Gaza kills family of four, including two children

An Israeli strike in Gaza on Thursday killed a family of four, including two children, according to Palestinian hospital and security sources, while the Israeli military claimed it targeted a "military operative".

"The bodies of four members of the Ahmad family were recovered in pieces after an Israeli strike hit a house in the Beit Lahia Project area in the northern Gaza Strip," an official at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said, identifying the children as aged 12 and eight.

The Israeli military said it "struck a military structure... from which terrorists had previously been identified operating".

"The strike eliminated Muamen Abd al-Rahman Ahmad, a military operative who had taken a direct part in combat against IDF troops... in violation of the ceasefire," it added.

A source within Gaza's Hamas-run security forces stated that Israeli warplanes struck after midnight in Beit Lahia and separately in the heart of the Jabalia refugee camp, with forces also firing on ambulances and tents housing displaced people.

"Israel continues its violations in the Gaza Strip," the security source said.

Meanwhile, five people were killed on Thursday in three separate Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip, bringing the day's death toll to nine, said the territory's civil defence agency.

Three of the victims were killed in a drone strike near Khan Yunis, according to the same source.

Israel agreed in October last year to a ceasefire brokered by the United States, but has since advanced further into the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up in strikes targeting Hamas—which led the 7 October 2023 attack against Israel—and insists there will be no pullout from Gaza until the group surrenders all of its weapons.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since the ceasefire was declared, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures are considered generally reliable by the United Nations. Over the same period, the Israeli military has reported five deaths within its ranks, alongside the death of one civilian contractor.