A boy lifts a plastic chair at the site where Palestinians were killed on Wednesday by an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis. — AFP GAZA, Dec 04 (AFP): Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP on Wednesday that an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory killed five people including two children.
The Israeli military said it had struck a "Hamas terrorist" in southern Gaza in response to a clash with Palestinian militants in the area that wounded five soldiers.
"Five citizens, including two children, killed and others injured, some seriously, as a result of an Israeli missile strike" in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The agency said the strike hit near the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Yunis and "targeted" a shelter camp.
The hospital also reported that five people, including two children aged eight and 10, were killed and another 32 were wounded.
A fragile US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has largely halted the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, but both sides have accused each other of violating its terms.
The Israeli military said earlier on Wednesday that during an operation in the area of eastern Rafah, soldiers encountered several militants "who emerged from an underground terrorist infrastructure".
"During the encounter, an (Israeli) combat soldier was severely injured, two additional combat soldiers and a non-commissioned officer were moderately injured," the military said in a statement.
It added that the soldiers were evacuated to hospital for treatment, and their families had been notified.
The second Israeli army statement announcing the air strike did not provide details about the fifth injured soldier.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his "wishes for a speedy recovery to our heroic soldiers", accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement.
A security source in Gaza told AFP that at around 4pm local time (1400 GMT), "very heavy artillery shelling took place from occupation vehicles east of Rafah city, along with heavy gunfire from warplanes".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he still planned to visit New York despite incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani's threats to arrest him in compliance with an International Criminal Court warrant.
"Yes, I'll come to New York," Netanyahu said in a virtual interview with the New York Times' Dealbook forum.
Asked if he would seek to speak to Mamdani, Netanyahu replied, "If he changes his mind and says that we have the right to exist, that'll be a good opening for a conversation."
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who will be New York's first Muslim and first South Asian mayor, has repeatedly said he supports Israel's right to exist.
But he has balked at saying Israel has the right to be a Jewish state, saying no country should have a "hierarchy of citizenship" based on religion or other factors.
Mamdani has vowed to send the New York Police Department to enforce arrest warrants against leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court, including Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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