Israeli-backed ground attack kills three, wounds eight in Gaza

Heavy Israeli bombardment killed three people in Gaza City on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, in what both sides described as an Israeli-backed ground operation to seize a senior Hamas figure.

Eyewitnesses reported around a dozen strikes on Tuesday morning in western Gaza City, where the territory's civil defence agency said three people were killed, including two children and a woman.

Eight people were wounded, according to the civil defence, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority. Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital confirmed it had received the bodies and the wounded.

Speaking on the Israeli side of the Gaza border, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that "a senior Hamas terrorist was arrested" without naming the person or giving further details.

"We do not wait for threats, but hunt down Hamas terrorists, thwart them, and destroy their terror infrastructure," Katz said.

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The outspoken minister boasted that due to Israeli strikes since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, nearly 70 percent of Gaza has been destroyed and under Israeli military control "with no residents, no tunnels, and no houses".

Security sources in Gaza gave a different account, with one telling AFP the Israeli mission against a prominent Hamas figure was thwarted and that special forces withdrew "on motorcycles under Israeli cover".

The forces included an Israeli-allied militia inside Gaza, which Hamas has controlled for years, he said.

Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Hamas's media office in Gaza, said an Israeli special forces operation was "exposed during the mission", prompting heavy airstrikes in the area.

The bombardment also resulted in the "killing of a number of members of the special force that attempted to carry out the mission", Thawabta wrote on X.

The Israeli military said it struck "several targets in the Gaza Strip in order to remove threats to the security forces", without specifying where the strikes took place or giving any further information.

Separately, in the central Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah reported that Israeli fire killed two other people including a girl.

Despite a US-backed ceasefire that took effect in October 2025, violence has not halted in the Gaza Strip, with Israel continuing to target Palestinians it says are militants.