Israeli fire kills nine in Gaza despite ceasefire

Israeli fire kills nine in Gaza despite ceasefire
A Palestinian boy runs past the site of an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 20, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Reuters

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least nine people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including a child and an Al Jazeera journalist, Palestinian health officials said.

Medics said four Palestinians, including two women and a child, were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City. The strike destroyed the apartment and wounded several others.

The Israeli military said it had struck a militant, but did not provide further details.

In a separate incident, health officials said Israeli forces shot and killed a woman in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. Another Israeli airstrike killed at least one person and wounded eight others in Khan Younis, in the south.

Al Jazeera cameraman killed

Later on Saturday, medics said three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Among them was Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman working for Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera condemned his killing, calling it a “heinous crime”. The network said Wishah was killed around two months after his brother, Mohammed Wishah, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed by the Israeli military.

The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate also condemned the killing and said nearly 300 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the war began in October 2023.

Israel says it targeted militant

The Israeli military said Wishah was a Hamas militant who posed a threat and also worked as an Al Jazeera photojournalist. It said he had served as a sniper and was killed alongside two other Hamas militants. The military did not provide evidence.

Hamas and Al Jazeera denied that Wishah had any links to the group.

Al Jazeera said Wishah was the 12th of its journalists killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.

Ceasefire remains fragile

An October ceasefire has halted major fighting between Hamas and Israel, but Israeli strikes have continued. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,010 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began. Militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in Gaza during the same period.

Israel says its strikes are aimed at preventing imminent attacks by Hamas and other armed groups.

Talks remain deadlocked

Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked over the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, which includes Hamas laying down its arms and Israeli withdrawals.

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, along with Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, have been holding talks on implementing the second phase of the plan, but no agreement has been reached, sources close to the talks said.

Israel says Hamas must give up power in Gaza, disarm and play no role in the future governance of the enclave. Hamas says full disarmament should be linked to the launch of a political process towards establishing a Palestinian state.

Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, according to Israeli figures. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since then.


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