Source: Reuters

Israel said on Wednesday it was still committed to the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza, despite pounding the enclave in retaliation for the death of an Israeli soldier with a day of bombardment that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people.

Even as the military affirmed it still intended to uphold the truce, it announced it had carried out another airstrike in the north of Gaza where it said weapons had been stored. Medics said two people were killed in that attack.

The killing of an Israeli soldier in Gaza on Tuesday has triggered the worst escalation in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10.

Israel says the soldier was killed in an attack by gunmen on territory within the “yellow line” where its troops withdrew under the truce. Hamas has denied blame.

Israel described its latest attack on Wednesday as a targeted strike in the area of Beit Lahia in the north of the strip, where it said weapons had been stored. It said it would continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement while responding firmly to any violation.

AIRSTRIKES TARGETED HAMAS COMMANDER, ISRAEL SAYS

In response to the soldier’s death, the military launched what it described as strikes targeting dozens of Hamas militants across the enclave, as well as weapons depots and tunnels belonging to the group.

It named 24 militant targets, including one it described as a Hamas commander who took part in an attack on a kibbutz during the October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel that triggered the war.

The Gaza health ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the 104 people killed in the airstrikes.

In Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, neighbours said the entire Abu Dalal family had been wiped out in an airstrike that flattened their home overnight.

A boy in a wheelchair wailed as the family’s bodies in white plastic body bags were loaded into the back of a flatbed truck. Crowds followed as the bodies were driven through the streets to a cemetery.

“It was erased from the civil registry: an entire family. About nine people: the father, the son, his wife, his son’s wife, and all the children were completely removed from the civil registry,” said neighbour Wael Najem, 52.

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