Israeli Army Fatally Shoots Palestinian in Rafah Despite Ceasefire

(MENAFN) Israeli army fire claimed the life of a Palestinian near military positions in northern Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday — the latest in a relentless string of Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement that has nominally been in force since last October, medical sources said.

Medical sources told media that the body of an unidentified Palestinian was transported to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after he was shot in the Al-Baraksat area of northwestern Rafah. The victim lay at the scene for hours before emergency crews could safely recover his body, as sustained Israeli fire made retrieval dangerously impossible.

Simultaneously in northern Gaza, a second Palestinian succumbed Saturday to wounds suffered in a prior Israeli shooting near the Zikim area in northwestern Beit Lahia, medical sources confirmed.

The twin deaths are far from isolated. On Thursday alone, four Palestinians — including a child — were killed in separate Israeli strikes scattered across the enclave, as near-daily attacks grind on in open defiance of the truce.

The cumulative toll since the ceasefire took hold on October 10 has grown to at least 773 Palestinians killed and 2,171 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry — casualties inflicted entirely during a period that was meant to halt the bloodshed.

The ceasefire itself came after more than two years of a devastating war that has killed over 72,000 Palestinians, left upward of 172,000 wounded, and reduced approximately 90% of the enclave's infrastructure to rubble.

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