Gaza strike kills one after week-long lull, officials say

Gaza's civil defence agency and Al-Shifa Hospital said an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia killed Mohanad Saada and wounded five other people on Wednesday, in Israel's first Gaza air strike in more than a week.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander who had been planning attacks against Israeli forces operating in Gaza. It said the strike was carried out to remove a threat to troops and that it tried to reduce civilian harm.

Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue service under Hamas, said the strike targeted civilians riding in a tuk-tuk. A witness said Saada was among workers repairing a wall damaged by Israeli shelling.

The strike broke a relative lull as the United States pressed a peace plan. Israel had not carried out air strikes in Gaza since August 3, after US President Donald Trump announced what he called a major milestone in his plan to end the war.

Hamas had announced that it would disarm by handing its weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee. Trump's Board of Peace had initially announced that Israel would start a phased withdrawal from much of Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the deal on Sunday and vowed there would be no Israeli pullout.

The two sides agreed to a Trump-backed ceasefire in October, after which Israel reduced but did not end military operations. Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, says Israeli operations have killed 1,259 Palestinians since the ceasefire. The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.