2 Palestinians killed in Gaza amid persistent Israeli attacks on civilians

Two Palestinians were killed and a number of others injured Monday in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire that ostensibly went into effect last October, Anadolu reports.

An Anadolu Agency  correspondent, citing a local medical source, said Mohammed Abdul Nasser Abu Asad, 27, had been killed — and a number of others injured, at least one of them seriously — when an Israeli drone struck a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians near the Shuhadaa Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Separately, another Palestinian succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli drone strike on Sunday that also struck a tent for displaced people west of the city, according to a medical source at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Seven other Palestinians were injured in the drone strike, the same source said.

Eyewitnesses also reported heavy Israeli gunfire from military vehicles in the direction of tents for displaced people in southern and eastern Khan Younis.

Witnesses also reported Israeli artillery shelling on the Abu Rashid area south of central Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

The Israeli aggression has continued despite an earlier call by US President Donald Trump for Israel to halt its attacks on the embattled Palestinian enclave.

In an Aug. 17 interview with Fox News, Trump said that Israel “should not be striking in Gaza.”

Hamas, he added, had “agreed to lay down their weapons” under a US-backed peace plan.

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On Monday, Gaza’s government media office said Israel had committed 4,379 ceasefire violations since the truce deal ostensibly took effect.

On humanitarian aid, the office said only 66,607 aid trucks had entered Gaza out of 189,000 that had been supposed to enter by Monday.

Israel continues to block agreed-upon aid deliveries from entering Gaza, where around 2.4 million Palestinians live, roughly 2.15 million of whom have been displaced by persistent Israeli attacks.

Regarding freedom of movement, the media office said Israel had only allowed 11,759 people to leave the strip out of 29,800 who had been supposed to depart the territory after the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The media office called on mediators Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye — as well as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement — to pressure Israel to implement all the terms of the deal and halt its continued violations.

In a daily statistical report Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said hospitals had received two bodies and 32 injured people over the past 24 hours, without specifying the circumstances.

The ministry added that the post-ceasefire death toll currently stood at 1,288, with another 4,290 injured, in addition to 813 bodies recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings and infrastructure.

The overall death toll from Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 currently stands at 73,422 killed and 174,401 injured, the ministry added.

Numerous victims remain buried under the rubble and on roads, with ambulance and civil-defense teams unable to reach them, it said.

Alongside the casualties, most of whom are women and children, Israel has destroyed around 90 percent of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, with the UN estimating total reconstruction costs at some $70 billion.

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