5-year-old and her uncle killed in airstrike in Gaza as Israel says it targeted an imminent threat
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike in Gaza on Monday hit a tent housing displaced people, killing a 5-year-old girl and her uncle and wounding two other children, hospital officials said.
The strike took place in the Muwasi area northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, officials at Nasser Hospital said. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify those details. Family members wept over the bodies as they were brought to the hospital.
The dead are among the more than 400 people killed in Gaza since an October ceasefire began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said on social media it struck a Hamas militant who planned an imminent attack on Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip. It said the strike complied with the ceasefire agreement, and was done in a targeted way to mitigate civilian harm.
It was not immediately clear if the statement referred to the fatal tent strike. The military also said that, because of continued ceasefire violations, it had begun striking Hezbollah and Hamas terror targets in southern and eastern Lebanon.
The strikes came a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel.
Israel and the Lebanese militant group exchanged fire for over a year before reaching a ceasefire in November 2024. Israel continues to control small parts of Lebanese territory and has continued to carry out strikes, accusing the group of trying to rearm.
Earlier on Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that two other bodies had been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said that 422 bodies have been brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Five others were brought to hospitals with injuries over the last day, it said. They are among the 1,189 wounded since the ceasefire. Another 684 people have been found dead in the rubble strewn across Gaza during the same period.
The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 71,388, the ministry said. Another 171,269 have been wounded, it said.
___ Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Eleanor Reich in Jerusalem and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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