Israeli strike kills five in Gaza, including three children

An Israeli air strike has targeted a group of civilians in northern Gaza, killing at least five Palestinians, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

“Five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a group of civilians near Al-Qassam mosque in Beit Lahia,” local health officials said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“Their bodies were taken to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City,” it added, without specifying the age of the children. The hospital confirmed receiving the bodies.

Israel has committed 2,400 violations of the “ceasefire agreement” with Hamas in October, Gaza’s Government Media Office said. These included targeted strikes, arrests, blockades and forced starvation of Gaza’s residents.

More than 20,000 children were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in two years of its genocidal war, according to a Save the Children report in September. The charity said that, on average, at least one child was killed every hour, over 1,000 of them under one year old, with thousands more suffering injuries, trauma or separation from parents.

By November 2023, the situation in Gaza was already described by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as a “graveyard for children”.

Last week, the gender equality organisation, UN Women, reported that an average of at least 47 women and girls were ⁠killed each day ⁠during the war in Gaza – more than 38,000 in total between October 2023 and December 2025, including over 22,000 women and 16,000 girls.

“Women and girls accounted for a proportion of deaths far higher than those observed in previous conflicts in Gaza. Those killed were mothers, they were daughters, sisters, and friends – deeply loved by those around them,” said Sofia Calltorp, the agency’s humanitarian action head. The agency reported “this suffering continues”, despite the supposed ceasefire.

Since the US-brokered “ceasefire” took effect in October, at least 786 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to Gaza’s health ministry. At least 32 of those deaths were in this month alone, among them Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah, who was killed in a drone strike west of Gaza City on April 8.

Israel has also been accused of violating the “ceasefire” agreement by restricting the entry of agreed quantities of food, medicine, medical supplies and shelter materials into Gaza, where about 2.4 million Palestinians, including 1.5 million displaced, are living in desperate conditions.