‘War crime’: Hamas condemns Israeli strikes on Gaza tents that killed five

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned Israeli airstrikes that killed several Palestinians, including two children, in the besieged Gaza Strip, calling the attacks a further breach of the October ceasefire agreement.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Gaza-based movement lashed out at Israel for violating the existing ceasefire, calling the strikes a blatant “war crime” and slamming the occupying entity for attempting to avoid its obligations under the truce agreement.

In its latest aggression against the war-torn Palestinian territory, the Israeli regime conducted airstrikes targeting tents sheltering displaced civilians in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, igniting several fires.

The strikes killed five Palestinians, including two children, and wounded an unspecified number of others on Wednesday evening.

“The barbaric aggression and brutal bombing by the criminal Zionist occupation army against the tents of displaced persons near the Kuwaiti Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, resulting in martyrs and wounded, including children, is a documented war crime, a disregard for the ceasefire agreement, and a blatant attempt to evade its obligations,” Hamas said.

Separately, two Palestinians were also killed by Israeli gunfire in the Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza City.

The Wednesday killings mark the latest Israeli violations of a US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza and came after the military accused Hamas fighters of attacking and wounding four of its soldiers in southern Rafah, near the territory's border with Egypt.

The deadly aggression took place hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “respond accordingly” to the alleged injuring of Israeli soldiers by Palestinian fighters during clashes in Rafah. 

Hamas has denied any involvement in the clashes, reaffirming its commitment to the ceasefire that began on October 10.

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In its Wednesday statement, the resistance movement also held the Tel Aviv regime fully responsible for the escalation and urged international mediators to pressure Israel to halt its aggression.

“We hold the criminal Zionist occupation fully responsible for the repercussions of this escalation, and we call on mediators and guarantor states to rein in the fascist occupation from continuing its crimes,” Hamas further said.

It also called on mediators of the ceasefire and guarantor states not to allow war criminal Netanyahu and his extremist regime “to evade the requirements of the agreement, foremost among them the cessation of bombing operations against civilians, residential areas, and displaced persons' tents.”

Two months into the deal, rights groups and ceasefire monitors say the regime's genocide in Gaza has not stopped. They report more than 500 violations of the ceasefire, with at least 356 Palestinians killed during this period, pushing Gaza’s overall death toll to more than 70,000 since October 2023.

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