A 12-year-aged Palestinian boy was killed Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, as violence continued despite a ceasefire agreement. Youssef Asaliya died in Jabalia, according to Palestinian medical sources who transferred his body to Al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the strike, stating that troops in northern Gaza “identified a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an imminent threat to their safety.” The IDF said the individual was “eliminated in order to remove the threat.”
The incident occurred as Gaza-based health authorities reported that Israel has killed 603 people and injured 1,618 others in the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. The total death toll since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, now stands at 72,063, with 171,726 injured, according to the same authorities.
In the West Bank, another Palestinian child was killed and another seriously injured by the explosion of unexploded ordnance left by the Israeli army in the central Jordan Valley, Palestinian security sources reported. The IDF confirmed that soldiers were dispatched to the area following a report of three Palestinians injured although “playing with unexploded ordnance.”
The escalating violence coincides with growing international criticism of Israeli settlement policy. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, warned Tuesday that “accelerating the dispossession of Palestinians &. expanding Israeli settlements will do nothing to bring long-needed stability & peace to the region.”
Lazzarini added that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to “reverse these measures,” urging all parties to “preserve the only path to lasting peace, a negotiated two-State solution in line with international law.” Israel seized control of the West Bank after the 1967 war and has established settlements there, a move deemed illegal by the international community.
Local sources also reported additional Israeli airstrikes east of the Gaza Strip and the arrest of two Palestinian fishermen fishing off the coast. No further details were immediately available regarding the airstrikes or the fishermen’s detention.
