By Middle East Correspondent
London, (The Muslim News):Two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded on Monday as Israeli attacks continued across the Gaza Strip, in what Palestinian officials said were further breaches of the ceasefire agreement reached last October.
Medical sources said a child was shot in the head by Israeli forces in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, in southern Gaza, and later died from his wounds. In a separate incident, 17-year-old Hussein Abu Sabla was killed after being shot near the al-Tahliya area, east of Khan Younis. He was taken to Nasser Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Israeli fire also left a 20-year-old man critically injured in Khan Younis, while in northern Gaza a Palestinian youth was wounded when an Israeli drone dropped a bomb on a group of civilians near the western roundabout in Beit Lahiya. Local sources said the strike hit an area from which Israeli forces had previously withdrawn, injuring several people.
Further attacks were reported elsewhere in the enclave. Israeli artillery shelled eastern parts of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, while troops also opened fire east of Jabalia in the north. No immediate information was available on casualties from those incidents.
Israeli forces continue to control large areas of the Gaza Strip, including buffer zones along the southern and eastern borders and much of the north, amounting to nearly half of the territory.
The latest killings followed two similar incidents on Sunday, when Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in northern and southern Gaza, claiming they had crossed the so-called “Yellow Line” a non-visible boundary set out in the ceasefire agreement separating Israeli military deployment areas from zones where Palestinians are allowed to move.
Palestinian officials say Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, which came into effect on October 11 and halted a war that has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023, most of them women and children. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 465 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 1,300 injured since the ceasefire began, with hundreds of bodies recovered from beneath the rubble.
Medical sources said the overall death toll has now reached 71,550, with 171,365 wounded. Over the past 24 hours, Gaza hospitals received one new fatality and 12 injured people. Many victims are still believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings or lying in the streets, as rescue teams struggle to reach them amid widespread destruction and severe shortages of equipment and fuel.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire, even as the ceasefire passes the 100-day mark. UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said aid operations continue to face restrictions and logistical obstacles, with recent winter storms further hampering efforts to deliver assistance.
The World Food Programme is currently reaching more than one million people each month with food parcels, bread and hot meals, but has warned that the situation remains fragile. The agency has called for additional safe corridors from Egypt and Jordan, as well as along Gaza’s Salah ad-Din Road, to increase the flow of aid and reduce security risks.
Health agencies have also raised alarm over rising disease risks, particularly among children. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said many children have missed routine vaccinations amid the collapse of Gaza’s health system, overcrowded shelters and poor water and sanitation services. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said prolonged winter conditions, including flooding and cold temperatures, have further worsened the situation.
In response, UNRWA, working with UNICEF and the World Health Organization, has begun a second round of a catch-up vaccination campaign targeting children under the age of three.
Israel continues bombing southern Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Monday, in another apparent violation of a ceasefire that has been in place since November 2024. Lebanese media reported strikes near Meis Castle in the town of Ansar, as well as in Barghuz and al-Mahmoudiyeh in the Jezzine district, and along the Litani River near al-Sreireh and Baraz.
Further strikes hit the outskirts of Louaizeh in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region, the Buslaya area near Jbaa, and Wadi Kfar Melki in the Sidon district, with loud explosions heard across the south. No casualties were immediately reported.
The Israeli military said the attacks targeted what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have not commented.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to withdraw fully from southern Lebanon by January 2025 but has maintained a presence at five border outposts following more than a year of fighting that left over 4,000 people dead and 17,000 injured.
[Photo: Relatives of 17-year-old Palestinian Hussein Tevfik Abu Sebele, who was killed by Israeli army fire, attend the funeral ceremony held in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on January 19, 2026. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
