Cairo, Egypt / Gaza Strip – Web Desk: An Israeli air strike and separate tank shelling killed at least six Palestinians, including two girls and a paramedic, in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, March 8, 2026, in the deadliest reported incidents there since the start of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran over a week ago, according to Gaza health officials.
Mohamed Abu Selmia, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said an air strike near Al-Azhar University in western Gaza City killed three men, including paramedic Mohammad Hamduna, Mohammad Abu Shedeq, and Ahmed Lafi. The strike landed close to crowded tent encampments sheltering displaced families, wounding several others.
The Israeli military stated the strike targeted two Hamas members allegedly preparing to attack Israeli soldiers but provided no evidence. No militant group has claimed the men, and the military did not respond to requests for further details.
In a separate incident after midnight in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli tank shells struck a tent encampment housing displaced families in western Nuseirat camp, killing at least three people—including two girls—and wounding 10 others, some of them children, according to medics at Al-Awda Hospital.
The Israeli military issued no immediate comment on the tank shelling.
Such incidents in Gaza have decreased in frequency since the escalation of the broader Middle East conflict involving Iran, though Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians in the enclave over the past week.
The Gaza health ministry reports at least 640 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since October 2025. Israel states four of its soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza during the same period.
The territory remains devastated from more than two years of conflict following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people and saw over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. Gaza authorities say over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing Israeli military operations, displacing most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents and reducing large areas to rubble.
A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last October, but both sides have accused each other of violations, with sporadic violence persisting.
