New Israeli strikes kill three in Gaza, authorities say

Israeli strikes killed three people in Gaza on Friday, authorities in the Palestinian territory said, in the latest day of attacks despite international appeals to move ahead on a peace plan.

The civil defence agency, which serves as a rescue service under Hamas, said that the bodies of three people were recovered in pieces after Israeli strikes in the town of Al-Qarara, east of Khan Yunis.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis named the three people and said they all belonged to the same family, with two aged 42 and one aged 28.

An Israeli military spokesperson, contacted by AFP, said that the military was looking into it.

Israeli strikes also killed three people on Thursday, according to the civil defence agency. The Israeli military said it had targeted two Hamas members it accused of plotting attacks against Israelis.

Israel has kept striking the Gaza Strip and its forces have made further inroads despite a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October, with Israel insisting it must eliminate threats from Hamas, which led the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel.

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Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the "Board of Peace" established by President Donald Trump to implement the deal, said on Thursday that deadly Israeli strikes made it hard for the people of Gaza to feel the ceasefire, which he said was still holding.

"Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs this process something very hard to buy back," he told the UN Security Council.

He said that Hamas also has not fulfilled its commitments including on disarmament, although the group promised late last month to do so.

Israel has warned that it will retaliate for the flying of kites in Gaza after a number crossed into Israel, leading some parents to stop their children from kite-flying.

In previous years, kites and balloons laden with explosives have been flown from Gaza. The latest did not contain explosives although at least one reportedly had a political message written on it.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that the deadline had passed to stop kite-flying, warning, according to Israeli media: "Any launch constitutes an act of terrorism in itself, and we will treat it as such."