Israeli fire kills four people in Gaza, medics say

Israeli strikes and ‌gunfire killed ​at least four people in the Gaza Strip in separate incidents on Thursday, health officials in the enclave said.

In Gaza City, ‌a strike on a car killed at least one person, medics said. They earlier said there had been two deaths. A crowd gathered around the burning wreckage, as orange-vested emergency crews sprayed it with ‌water, photos from the scene showed. Other strikes killed a Palestinian man on a bike ‌in the southern city of Khan Younis and a man near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and gunfire killed a woman near the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north, the medics added.

Israel's military said it had struck ⁠Hamas militants ​in Khan Younis, Nuseirat ⁠and Gaza City, but that it was not aware of the reported incident in Jabalia. Israel, which says the Hamas ⁠militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, has stepped up strikes ​on the group in recent weeks.

Hamas has denied trying to carry out attacks or ⁠rebuild its arsenal and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal. Last year's US-brokered ceasefire calls for eventual reconstruction of ⁠the ​territory. But little progress has been made as negotiators have failed to agree terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops.

Israeli airstrikes have continued. At least ⁠1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health officials, while ⁠Israel says four soldiers ⁠have been killed. Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 ‌people in southern ‌Israel on October 7, 2023.