At least 19 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight and at dawn on Wednesday, as attacks targeted multiple areas across the Gaza Strip. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, medical and field sources in Gaza reported fatal airstrikes following Israel’s decision to break a ceasefire with Hamas that had been in place since January. The attacks resulted in widespread casualties, with strikes hitting locations sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis and Rafah.

In western Khan Younis, two Palestinians were killed, and five others wounded when an Israeli drone strike targeted a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area. Another strike in northern Khan Younis claimed the lives of a woman and a child while injuring three others. Further assaults on tents sheltering civilians in the same region led to additional deaths, including four people in one attack and five in another. Meanwhile, two children were killed in an airstrike on a tent in western Rafah, while four more Palestinians lost their lives when the Israeli army struck a family home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood.

These attacks mark a severe escalation, effectively shattering the fragile ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the US in January. Israel’s offensive on Tuesday alone resulted in over 400 Palestinian deaths, intensifying a military campaign that has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinians—primarily women and children—since October 2023. In response to these actions, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice.