CAIRO/RAMALLAH, The West Bank, March 30 (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike killed at least three people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago.
Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it had struck and killed members of a Hamas armed cell it had identified in the northern Gaza Strip to remove the threat to its troops operating in the area.
More than 72,000 people have been killed since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. Israel is now also waging a war, alongside the U.S., against Iran, and is carrying out a new campaign against Hezbollah in which Israeli forces have invaded southern Lebanon.
Violence in Gaza has persisted despite the ceasefire and amid Israel’s war with Iran. Health officials in the territory say at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iran conflict began a month ago.
Hamas and Israel have traded blame for truce violations since October.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said Israeli forces had shot and killed a 22-year-old man near the city of Hebron. They added that soldiers took the body away.
Palestinian security sources identified the dead man as Ramzi Awawada and accused Israeli soldiers of leaving him to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him.
The Israeli military said forces had shot and killed a Palestinian who ran towards them holding a knife.
Separately, it said that forces operating near the city of Tulkarm fired at a Palestinian who accelerated his vehicle toward them, posing a threat to their safety, and “neutralized him.” The soldiers were not hurt, it added.
Later, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed the driver’s death, adding that the army had taken away his body.
Rights groups and medics say Israeli settlers are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the Iran war to attack Palestinians in the West Bank, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly.
Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the conflict began on February 28, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Ali Sawafta in the West Bank. Additional reporting by Alex Cornwell in Jerusalem; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Gareth Jones)
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