By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, March 17 (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike killed at least three people including a child in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, the latest violence jeopardising the ceasefire which has been under strain during the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran.
Medics said the airstrike targeted a vehicle in the western area of Khan Younis, south of the enclave, killing three people, including a child, and wounding 12 other people. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Israel’s military has continued to strike Gaza during the regional war with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. On Sunday it killed 12 people in Gaza, including nine police officers in one strike that Israel said targeted a Hamas cell. The military has cited threats or fire from Hamas as the reason for its attacks.
Israel’s assault has since killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health authorities say, including more than 670 since a ceasefire was reached last October. Gaza health officials said at least 40 people have been killed by Israeli fire since the United States and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran at the end of February.
Three sources told Reuters on Monday that envoys from U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” have met representatives of Hamas in Cairo in an effort to safeguard the October Gaza ceasefire, which has come under serious strain.
A Palestinian official with knowledge of the Cairo talks said that Hamas believed Israel was exploiting the war on Iran to slip away from its obligations under Trump’s plan. Israel rejects this.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for ceasefire violations.
Separately, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian and wounded another in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said forces fired at three people who hurled stones at Israeli vehicles near the town of Salfit, “neutralising” two of them.
Rights groups and medics say Israeli settlers are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran to attack Palestinians in the West Bank, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly.
Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the Iran war began on February 28, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in CairoAdditional reporting by Ali Sawafta in RamallahEditing by Peter Graff)
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