At least two people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed in two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday, according to Palestinian health officials.
Seven others were reportedly wounded as tensions continued to rise despite a ceasefire that brought an end to the territory’s most intense fighting.
The strikes came after Israel warned that it could step up military action if launches of balloons, drones and kites from Gaza towards Israel did not stop.
The latest violence has added to growing concerns over the durability of the ceasefire and efforts to move towards a broader political settlement.
Four-year-old boy dies after Zawayda strike
One of Sunday’s strikes struck a building in Zawayda, in central Gaza, residents said.
The attack followed a warning from the Israeli military for people associated with the property to leave the area.
The building was heavily damaged, with twisted metal and concrete left scattered across the site.
Palestinian medics said debris and shrapnel travelled across the surrounding area, injuring at least six people.
Among those caught in the blast was four-year-old Mohammad Abdel-Salam Taha, who was taken to hospital but later died from his injuries.
Displaced residents describe the devastation
The strike also left displaced Palestinians sheltering nearby facing another scene of destruction.
One displaced resident, identified as Abu Ahmed, described the situation as evidence that the ceasefire had failed to bring genuine safety.
“There is no ceasefire, there is nothing,” he said, while appealing for an end to the violence.
“We want solutions, we want to live in peace,” he added.
A second Israeli airstrike was reported in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel’s military said it was investigating both incidents.
Israel says attacks from Gaza are continuing
Israel’s latest warnings followed reports of launches from Gaza involving drones, balloons and kites.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that Israeli authorities had conducted a security assessment and warned Hamas that military strikes would intensify if the launches stopped only after further escalation.
Israel also said civilians could be ordered to evacuate areas of Gaza if the activity continued.
The Israeli military has maintained that its operations are aimed at preventing attacks by Hamas and other armed groups operating in the enclave.
Hamas rejects Israel’s warning
Hamas rejected Israel’s characterization of the launches and dismissed the warning of intensified military action.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim wrote on X that children were flying kites as they searched for a sense of normal childhood among the destruction surrounding them.
His comments reflected Hamas’s broader accusation that Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire and obstructed efforts to advance a wider plan intended to end the Gaza conflict.
Ceasefire has failed to end deadly violence
A US-backed ceasefire reached in October 2025 halted the largest-scale fighting in Gaza, but attacks have continued.
Palestinian health officials say more than 1,280 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began last October.
Israel’s military, meanwhile, says four Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same period.
The two sides continue to disagree sharply over responsibility for the violence and the future of the ceasefire.
Israel says senior Hamas militant was killed
The latest escalation follows an Israeli military announcement that one of its strikes killed senior Hamas militant Sharif Al-Hasnat in Deir Al-Balah.
The military said Al-Hasnat had been involved in efforts to rebuild Hamas’s underground infrastructure.
The development has further complicated efforts to implement a wider US-backed proposal from President Donald Trump, which includes Israeli troop withdrawals and the disarmament of Hamas.
Violence spreads beyond Gaza
The latest tensions were not confined to the Gaza Strip.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said an Israeli man was stabbed and wounded near Jericho in an attack they believed was carried out by a Palestinian suspect.
According to the Israeli military, security footage showed a man waiting near a vehicle beside a major highway before approaching and stabbing the Israeli man as he reached his parked car.
The suspect escaped on foot, prompting Israeli forces to begin a search.
Teenager killed during West Bank raid
Separately, Palestinian health officials reported that Israeli forces shot dead 14-year-old Islam Ajjouri during a raid in Askar refugee camp near Nablus.
The Israeli military said it was examining the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The violence comes amid a wider deterioration in security conditions across the West Bank, where Palestinians have reported increasing settler attacks and seizures of land and resources.
Settlements remain a major source of international dispute
The West Bank is home to roughly three million Palestinians and around 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Most countries and United Nations bodies consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territory illegal under international law governing military occupation.
Israel rejects that position, pointing instead to its biblical and historical connections to the territory.
The dispute over settlements remains one of the most difficult issues in efforts to achieve a lasting political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What happens next?
The immediate focus will be on whether the latest Gaza launches cease and whether Israel follows through on its warning of intensified strikes.
Any further escalation could place additional pressure on the already fragile ceasefire and complicate international efforts to implement a broader peace framework.
For civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, the latest deaths underline how little the cessation of major fighting has done to eliminate the threat of violence.
Summary
Two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least two people, including a four-year-old boy, and injured seven others, according to Palestinian health officials.
The attacks came after Israel warned of stronger military action over launches of balloons, drones and kites from Gaza.
Hamas rejected the warning, while Israel said its military was responding to threats from armed groups.
Meanwhile, violence continued in the West Bank, where an Israeli man was wounded in a stabbing attack and Palestinian officials reported the death of a 14-year-old boy during an Israeli military raid.
