By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Four militants of the Israeli forces were killed in Gaza, farmers were also shotCAIRO, – Israeli forces on Monday killed four militants after they came out of an underground tunnel in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and opened fire on troops, Israel’s military said.
It described the attack as a violation of a US-brokered ceasefire with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that took effect in Gaza last October, which it viewed as “extremely serious”.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, but some sources close to the group identified one of the dead as Anas Annashar, son of senior Hamas official and co-founder Isa Annashar.
Israel has launched airstrikes across the enclave in recent months in response to similar incidents that have killed dozens of people.
Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in an apartment in Gaza City, north of the enclave, health officials said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army, but a security official told Reuters the Israeli army was “carrying out the attack in retaliation for Hamas’ ceasefire violations”.
Dozens of Hamas fighters have been trapped in tunnels under Rafah since the ceasefire, and some have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
In a separate incident, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian farmer in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities.
Israel did not immediately comment on the incident.
Violence has repeatedly rocked the truce and both sides have blamed ceasefire violations as Washington pressures them to move on to the next phase of a ceasefire agreement, meant to end the conflict for good.
The next steps in President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan call for complex issues such as the disarmament of Hamas, which the group has long rejected, further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 580 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since a ceasefire deal was agreed in October. Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza at the same time.
The Gaza War began on October 7, 2023 with a Hamas attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. The Palestinian death toll in Gaza now exceeds 71,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without text modification
