By Middle East Correspondent
London (The Muslim News): Israeli forces carried out a wave of air strikes and drone attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 14 Palestinians, including five children, despite a ceasefire agreement that came into effect in October.
The attacks struck displacement tents and schools sheltering displaced families in southern, central and northern Gaza, according to medical sources and emergency services.
In southern Gaza, Israeli strikes hit displacement tents in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, an area designated by Israel as a “safe zone”. Gaza’s Civil Defence and Emergency Directorate said an initial strike on a tent killed three people.
A medical source at Nasser Hospital later told Anadolu Agency that the bodies of a woman and two children — Layan Abu Shaqra and brothers Abdullah and Omar al-Abadlah, aged five and seven — were received following the attack. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society later said the death toll from the strike rose to four.
A separate Israeli drone strike on another displacement tent in the al-Attar area of al-Mawasi killed one Palestinian and wounded several others, medical sources said.
In central Gaza, another Palestinian was killed when an Israeli drone struck a displacement tent northwest of Deir al-Balah, according to local medical sources. Israeli bombardment was also reported in the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps.
In northern Gaza, a young Palestinian man was killed and eight others, including children, were wounded when an Israeli drone targeted a school sheltering displaced families in the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza’s Medical Services Directorate said.
The directorate also reported that three Palestinians were wounded in a separate drone strike on the Khalifa School, another displacement shelter in Beit Lahiya.
Earlier on Thursday, a Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli fire from military vehicles in Jabalia camp, while a young man was killed when an Israeli drone dropped a munition in the Sheikh Nasser area east of Khan Younis, according to medical sources and witnesses. Another man was wounded by Israeli gunfire in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.
Among those killed was 11-year-old Hamsa Housou.
Her uncle, Khamis Housou, said he woke to screaming inside the family’s building. “I saw Hamsa lying on the floor and blood coming out of her nose and mouth,” he told Al Jazeera.
The attacks come despite a United States-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, intended to halt Israel’s military assault on Gaza and ease restrictions on the besieged enclave.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces have killed at least 424 Palestinians and wounded 1,189 others since the ceasefire began, through air strikes, drone attacks and ground fire.
Hamas condemned Thursday’s strikes, accusing Israel of systematically violating the ceasefire and obstructing progress towards a second phase of the agreement.
“We call on the mediators and the countries guaranteeing the ceasefire agreement to condemn these grave violations, overseen by war criminal [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu on false and fabricated pretexts,” the group said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) described the attacks on displacement shelters as war crimes, accusing Israel of seeking to render Gaza uninhabitable.
“We affirm that this entity does not respect any ceasefire agreements and relies on treachery and false security pretexts to carry out its plans of extermination and displacement,” the group said.
The Israeli military claimed a “failed projectile” was launched from Gaza City towards Israel but fell inside the Gaza Strip. It provided no evidence, saying subsequent strikes targeted Hamas infrastructure and fighters.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced, living in makeshift tent camps after their homes were destroyed during Israel’s offensive.
Humanitarian agencies say Israel continues to block or severely restrict the entry of shelter materials, despite worsening winter conditions. Heavy rainfall in recent weeks has flooded encampments, leaving families exposed to cold, wind and disease.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Palestinians in Gaza were suffering from “respiratory infections, wound complications [and] skin diseases” as a result of harsh living conditions.
Babies are also “suffering from severe cold”, the organisation said, “all the while Israel continues to block or delay the entry of vital supplies like tents, tarpaulins, and temporary housing”.
At the same time, Israel has moved to restrict international aid groups operating in Gaza. The authorities have revoked the operating licences of 37 organisations under new regulations requiring extensive disclosures on staff, funding and operations.
Humanitarian experts say the measures violate humanitarian principles and are part of a longstanding campaign to impede aid delivery.
Reuters reported on Thursday that MSF, Médecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council were denied entry permits for international staff this week. The organisations warned they may be forced to suspend essential services, including healthcare, putting lives at risk.
The UN said humanitarian agencies continue to assist vulnerable families amid severe winter conditions but warned that Israeli restrictions are preventing the expansion of education services.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: “Despite impediments, we and our humanitarian partners continue to support the most vulnerable families affected by harsh winter conditions and the dire consequences of the past two years’ crisis.”
He added that Israel has denied the entry of essential supplies required to expand education services, stating that “education is not a critical activity during the first phase of the ceasefire”.
Israeli forces demolished tents & shelters in West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Dujarric said dozens of tents and shelters in Bedouin communities had been damaged or destroyed by severe winter weather, while Israeli authorities demolished 50 structures in Area C and East Jerusalem over the past two weeks, displacing more than 50 Palestinians and affecting the livelihoods of over 14,000 people.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces and illegal Jewish settlers have killed at least 1,103 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000, according to Palestinian figures.
Illegal Jewish settler violence has forced around 20 Palestinian families from the Kaabneh Bedouin clan to abandon their homes in the Shalal al-Auja area north of Jericho, according to the Bedouin rights group Al-Baidar.
Its general supervisor, Hassan Malihat, said families were driven out by repeated assaults, intimidation, and the absence of protection.
“What is happening reflects a systematic policy to uproot indigenous communities,” he said.
Around 750,000 illegal settlers live in settlements across the occupied West Bank, including some 250,000 in East Jerusalem.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 71,400 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured more than 171,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said humanitarian aid remains grossly insufficient.
“We are three months into the ceasefire, but the assistance is still not yet at scale for the population,” he said. “People are still living in the shaky rubber shelters… they continue to lack almost everything.”
[Photo: Palestinians search for their belongings amid the rubble after Israeli army bombed tents sheltering displaced Palestinian families in the northern Gaza Strip on January 9, 2026. Photojournalist: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/AA]
