The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday at least 77 Palestinians were also wounded in Israeli bombardment, according to a preliminary toll.
The Israeli attacks targeted three specific sites including southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, near Khan Younis, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli regime also struck a junction in the eastern Gaza City area of Shujayea filled with displaced Palestinian families, and a building in the Zeitoun neighborhood where at least 10 people – including an entire family – were killed.
The Israeli military said it launched Wednesday’s strikes on “Hamas targets” across Gaza in response to an incident in which its troops came under fire in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.
But Hamas rejected the claim that Israel’s forces were fired on, calling it “a flimsy and transparent attempt to justify its crimes and violations” in Gaza.
“We consider this a dangerous escalation through which the war criminal (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu seeks to resume the genocide against our people,” the Palestinian group said in a statement, referring to the latest Israeli attacks.
Wednesday’s assault on Gaza coincided with a series of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, where tensions are rapidly escalating after an Israeli bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the country killed more than a dozen people on Tuesday.
It also came just days after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution backing US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, including the deployment of a so-called “international stabilization force”.
The resolution also greenlit the establishment of a “board of peace” to oversee governance in the coastal territory, as the US and Israel demand that Hamas relinquish control of Gaza.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza have rejected the plan, saying it lays down a framework that goes against “the national will”.
Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq called on UNSC members to vote against the resolution, warning it could lead to the “undermining and rejection of Palestinian self-determination”.
Supporters of the US-backed UN resolution argued it would help bring a lasting halt to the Israeli regime’s war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
The Zionist regime has violated the ceasefire agreement at least 393 times since October 10, an Al Jazeera analysis found.