Israeli strikes kill five in Gaza, including two children and a Hamas armed commander, medics say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO/GAZA, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians across northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, including two children and a Hamas armed commander, health officials and Hamas sources said.
In northern Gaza, medics said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood killed at least two Palestinians, one of them a child, and wounded seven others. The attack appeared to be a double-tap strike, with witnesses saying a second blast hit near people who had rushed to help the first victims. A video Reuters could not immediately verify showed a missile exploding near at least five men. The Israeli military said it struck a militant in the area but did not elaborate.
In a separate incident, the British health charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said a patient was killed at a health center it supports in Jabalia, in northern Gaza. The organization said the patient was shot by an Israeli military quadcopter drone. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Another Israeli airstrike hit a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing a man and an 8-year-old girl and wounding 14 people, according to medical staff.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas commander in the Rafah Brigade on Tuesday, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Hamas sources said Nael Abu Obeid, a senior commander of the group, was killed in the strike.
Earlier, Palestinians held funerals in Gaza for two people killed by Israeli strikes a day earlier: Ahmed Al-Batsh and Rafat Zummar. Batsh was a local Hamas commander, according to Hamas sources and the Israeli military. Medics said he died in an attack on his vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said in separate statements that it had killed both men and described Zummar as a Hamas commander. Hamas did not immediately comment on Zummar's affiliation.
At Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital, relatives and friends honored Batsh's body, which was draped in a white shroud and a Hamas green flag. An M16 assault rifle was placed on top of the body.
"Israel thinks ... it will eliminate the resistance and the spirit of jihad (devotion) within us," said Khalil Al-Batsh, a relative of the dead Hamas militant. "I tell them that this cowardly operation only strengthens our people's determination to continue on this path," he told Reuters at the funeral.
An October 2025 U.S.-backed ceasefire halted large-scale fighting in Gaza, but it has not ended Israeli strikes, and there has been little progress toward a permanent peace.
Hamas accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire and undermining efforts to implement U.S. President Donald Trump's broader plan to end the Gaza conflict, which includes an Israeli withdrawal from the strip and the disarmament of Hamas. Israel says Hamas has been violating the deal.
More than 1,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory's health officials, while the Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed. Hamas does not usually disclose information about fatalities among its fighters.
The latest strikes underscore how fragile the ceasefire remains. Although the agreement ended the most intense phase of the war, it left unresolved core issues including a lasting Israeli withdrawal, Hamas's disarmament and postwar governance. Each new deadly incident is likely to deepen mistrust and complicate negotiations that have already shown few signs of movement.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas and Haseeb Alwazir in Gaza; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Cynthia Osterman)