Israeli drone attacks kill at least eight in Gaza, including a four-year-old boy

At least eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli drone attacks across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to hospital sources and local officials. The strikes were reported in both southern and northern Gaza, with casualties in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, and in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood. Among the dead was a four-year-old boy, according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital.

In al-Mawasi, five people were killed and several others wounded when a drone strike hit the area, hospital sources said. Gaza's Ministry of Interior said the people targeted there were police officers carrying out their duties. The Israeli military said it was targeting "a terrorist" in southern Gaza, according to a statement relayed to the AFP news agency.

In Gaza City, at least three people were killed in a separate drone attack, and the Taj Mall was also struck. Another person died on Sunday from wounds sustained in an earlier attack, bringing the confirmed death toll in the latest incidents to at least eight. Hamas condemned the strikes as a deliberate war crime and said the attack on police officers was intended to obstruct recovery efforts and sow chaos.

The group also denounced what it called the bombardment of Gaza City, saying civilians were killed and wounded in the assault. The latest deaths add to the continuing toll of the war in Gaza and underline how strikes remain concentrated in both the south and north of the territory. The reported targeting of police officers is significant because local authorities have described them as part of efforts to maintain order and support recovery work.

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The strikes also come amid continuing Israeli military operations despite a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last October, according to the supporting report. The incident fits into a wider conflict that has continued since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023. The Gaza Ministry of Health says more than 74,594 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, while the supporting report says more than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect.

Those figures could not be independently verified in the supplied material, but they indicate the scale of the continuing violence. What remains unclear is the full identity of those killed in the latest strikes, the condition of the wounded, and whether the Israeli military will provide further detail on the targets it says were hit. It is also not clear whether the Taj Mall strike caused additional casualties beyond those already confirmed.

Further updates are likely to focus on casualty verification, the response from local authorities, and whether the attacks affect already fragile conditions on the ground.

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