Israeli strikes in Gaza kill eight people including a child, hospitals say

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least eight people, including a child, according to hospitals, despite a ceasefire that has been in place for more than a year. In Gaza City, hospital officials said a missile attack hit a group of civilians next to Cairo School in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, killing three people, including a four-year-old boy. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run ministry of interior said a drone attack targeted a group of police officers in the Al-Mawasi area, killing five as they carried out their routine duties. The ministry named the five officers, who were between the ages of 23 and 53, and called the attack a "horrific massacre". The Israeli military said it had carried out two attacks on what it described as military operatives but has not yet provided evidence or further information. Outside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, video showed a crowd of men gathered to pray next to two body bags and the small body of the child, wrapped in a white towel. "My son and his child were martyred. They were sitting in their tent, bothering no one, and nothing else was happening in the area when suddenly, a missile struck them, and they were martyred," Ali Oweis told the AFP news agency. "There is no ceasefire; the war is ongoing - don't you see?" At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, video showed women despairing as body bags lay on the floor. A ceasefire came into force in Gaza in October last year, but Israeli air strikes have continued almost every day. Since then, 1,580 people have been killed, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. Israel says it is targeting Hamas, but civilians are often also killed. The ceasefire saw thousands of Palestinians held by Israel released in return for all 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza, and an agreement to end the war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Meanwhile, a peace plan for Gaza brokered by the Trump administration has stalled. Since the war began, 74,594 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.