Israeli strikes on Gaza continue after Lebanon ceasefire

Pregnant woman among at least 21 people killed across the enclave

Palestinians inspect a house neighbouring Al Qassam Mosque, both destroyed as a result of an overnight Israeli air strike in Gaza on Wednesday. EPA

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Israeli strikes continued on Gaza overnight and into Thursday killing more than 20 people across the enclave as a ceasefire took hold in Lebanon.

Nine people were killed in a strike hit on a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in Gaza city's Daraj district, the Health Ministry said, with reports of heavy strikes also hitting the northern towns of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, and across the south.

Three other people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in morning strikes and shelling on Beit Lahia and the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the official Wafa news agency.

The woman, who was three months pregnant, was killed in a strike that injured five others in Tal Al Zaatar area. Just hours later, nine people were killed in what Wafa described as "violent bombardment" on Nuseirat refugee camp, while paramedics retrieved the bodies of two brothers killed in Israeli attack on Beit Lahia's Kamal Adwan Hospital on Wednesday.

Israeli shelling continued across northern parts of the enclave on Thursday morning, Wafa added, while local sources said air strikes destroyed an entire residential block in the southern city of Rafah.

About 44,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the war began last October, with another 3,754 killed in Lebanon, where a ceasefire with Israel came into effect early on Wednesday morning.

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes targeted Palestine Tower in Gaza city on October 7, 2023. EPA

Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. AFP

This video grab from footage released by the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group on May 22 shows what the group described as Israeli female soldiers being captured by Palestinian Hamas militants during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. AFP

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. EPA

A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement, in Gaza city. EPA

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. Reuters

Lightning strikes as smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city on October 9, 2023. AFP

An Israeli artillery unit fires at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel, on October 11, 2023. EPA

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish people carry their belongings before boarding a ship for US nationals and their immediate family members, as they leave Israel headed for Cyprus. Reuters

Palestinian youths take cover behind a rubbish container as they clash with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah near the Israeli settlement of Beit El on October 20, 2023. AFP

A man mourns as he attends a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Reuters

A man holds a child, survivors of Israeli bombardment, as they are treated at a trauma ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. AFP

People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. AFP

Anti-war protesters raise their 'bloody' hands behind US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 31, 2023. Reuters

Palestinians run for cover after a strike near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on November 1, 2023. AFP

Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. AFP

An injured Palestinian woman covered in dust and blood hugs an injured girl child at the hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2023. AFP

Hostages released by Hamas Gal, left, and Tal Almog-Goldstein, second left, stand in a bus transporting them to an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel after they were released by the Palestinian militant group from the Gaza Strip on November 26, 2023. AFP

Palestinian boys stand in their makeshift tent at a camp set up on a schoolyard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip where most civilians have taken refuge, on December 13, 2023. AFP

Palestinians fleeing the north through the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza city, walk past Israeli army tanks on November 24, 2023. AFP

In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on December 15, 2023, soldiers visit a tunnel that Hamas reportedly used to attack Israel through the Erez border crossing on October 7. AFP

Jewish protesters block the passage of aid trucks being sent to Gaza in Ashdod, Israel on February 1, 2024. Reuters

A man pulls water containers as he walks past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis on May 5, 2024. AFP

Relatives of Hanan Yablonka, one of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, mourn during his funeral in Tel Aviv on May 26. AFP

Humanitarian aid packages land after being dropped from a plane in Al Mawasi district of Khan Younis, on May 30, 2024. Reuters

Palestinians attend Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Younis town, southern Gaza strip, on June 16. EPA

Displaced Palestinians play football in Jabalia on July 23, 2024. AFP

Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a school ride on the back of a cart in Deir Al Balah on July 27, 2024. AFP

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip, September 11. Reuters

Palestinians survey the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a displacement camp in Khan Younis on September 10, 2024. AFP

A medical staff member carries supplies through a destroyed section of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

People walk past makeshift graves in Gaza city on September 17. AFP

Hamas has said it is ready for a ceasefire with Israel following the agreement with Hezbollah, reached after months of shuttle diplomacy brokered by Washington. Israel has maintained a tight siege on northern Gaza, and has escalated air strikes on the area in recent weeks.

Palestinians in the war-torn enclave have expressed hope the ceasefire in Lebanon may bring about a similar end to the fighting in Gaza, while others fear it will lead to intensified Israeli attacks. Sources, however, have told The National a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is unlikely, with low-level contact continuing but limited to Hamas officials outside of Gaza.

The ceasefire in Lebanon is a "strategic defeat" for Israel and could pave the way for an end to the war in Gaza, too, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said. IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami said Hezbollah had thwarted Israel's "evil attempts" in southern Lebanon and described the ceasefire as a "great victory" in comments shared by the Fars news agency on Thursday morning.

"The ceasefire on the Lebanese front is a strategic and humiliating defeat for the Zionist regime, which did not even come close to achieving any of its evil goals, aspirations, and desires in the war against Hezbollah, and could even mark the beginning of a ceasefire and the end of the war in Gaza," he added.