IDF: Militants Fired on Troops Israeli Strikes Across Gaza Kill 28, Including Women and Children, Officials Say

Rawan Suleiman, Jack Khouryand Yaniv Kubovich / Haaretz

The IDF said that earlier militant fire on Israeli soldiers, which caused no casualties, violated the Gaza cease-fire. A Hamas battalion commander in Gaza City was among the targets of an IDF strike

Palestinian medical sources report 28 killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, which the Israeli military said came after militants opened fire on troops near Khan Yunis.

Seventeen of the dead were women and children, the medical sources said.

According to the military, no casualties were reported in the shooting incident, which it called a breach of the cease-fire agreement with Hamas. Hamas said its members did not fire on Israeli forces and condemned the Israeli strikes.

Defense officials said they were examining the results of one strike which targeted the commander of a Hamas battalion in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood.

Last month, Reservist Yona Efraim Feldbaum, 37, was killed in Rafah by Hamas fire. The Gaza Health Ministry said 104 people were killed in the Israeli retaliatory attacks, including 46 children and 20 women. The IDF spokesman said 26 targets were hit, among them nine Hamas company commanders, others affiliated with Islamic Jihad and terrorists involved in rocket production.