Israel strikes Gaza, killing 19 including women and children, after saying Hamas violated deal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 19 Palestinians, most of them women and children, by midday Wednesday, according to hospital officials. Israel pledged to continue strikes, saying that it was responding to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that seriously wounded one.

Among the Palestinians killed were five children, including a 5-month-old and a baby just 10 days old; seven women; and a paramedic, said hospital officials. They are the latest Palestinians in Gaza to die since a ceasefire deal, which has been punctuated by deadly Israeli strikes, came into effect on Oct. 10, 2025.

The escalating Palestinian death toll has rocked the U.S.-backed truce and caused Palestinians in the strip to say it does not feel like the war has ended.

“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”

The deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, it has been marred by repeated flareups of violence.

More than 530 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire went into effect, according to Gaza health officials, while Israel's military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israel’s military has said its continuing strikes are responses to Hamas violations or militant attacks on its soldiers, but dozens of civilians have been killed. Eight Arab and Muslim countries, including mediators Egypt and Qatar, recently condemned what they called Israel’s “repeated violations” of the deal.

An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military policy, told The Associated Press that Israel was striking the strip in response to militant gunfire that badly wounded a reservist soldier Wednesday morning.

Israeli troops fired on a building in the Tuffah neighborhood in north Gaza, killing at least 11 people, most from the same family, said Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included two parents, their 10-day-old girl, her 5-month-old cousin and their grandmother.

Mourners gathered in the courtyard of Shifa hospital Wednesday morning for funeral prayers.

“What did this child do? Was she (affiliated with) Hamas or Fatah? …. Why are they killing the children?,” asked a relative of the family killed in Tuffah, Mohammad Jaser.

“We don’t understand why this is happening to us. What do we do? Where do we go? This isn’t life,” he said.

Two young children were seen kneeling at the body of their father, as a woman told them to bid him farewell.

“Kiss him,” the woman told a young girl, who kneeled and kissed his father’s cheeks.

Meanwhile, the strikes continued.

An Israeli strike on a family’s tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people including a 12-year-old boy, said Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.

Tank shelling in Gaza City’s eastern neighborhood of Zaytoun killed another three Palestinians, according to Shifa Hospital, including a husband and his wife.

A strike on a tent in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis killed at least two people and wounded five others, according to a field hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent in the area.

The dead included Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, a paramedic for the Palestinian Red Crescent who was on duty at the time, said the hospital.

While fighting has not stopped, other parts of the ceasefire deal have moved forward.

Hamas has released all of the hostages it was holding, and in return Israel has released several thousand Palestinians. Increased amounts of humanitarian aid have flowed into Gaza, the Rafah border crossing has opened for a trickle of people to cross, and a new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.

But other key elements of the ceasefire appear to have stalled, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and reconstruction of Gaza. The U.S. has given no timeline on when these parts of the deal will wrap up.

Over 71,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Magdy reported from Cairo. AP reporter Julia Frankel contributed from Jerusalem.

A Palestinian woman and her children bid farewell to their husband and father, Youssef Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry 1-week-old baby Wateen al-Khabaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry 1-week-old baby Wateen al-Khabaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City , Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian man mourns over Ahmed Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian wife and children bid farewell to their father, Youssef Haboush, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the dead who were killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian Raed al-Khabba carries his 3-month-old daughter Mira al-Khabbaz, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

LONDON (AP) — The British government has agreed to release emails and other documents casting light on the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The move came after the opposition Conservative Party said it would force a vote in Parliament on Wednesday calling for the release of emails and other messages related to Mandelson’s appointment in 2024. Critics say he should never have been given the job because his relationship with Epstein – though not its extent – was known at the time.

The government has agreed to release the requested information unless it is ”prejudicial to U.K. national security or international relations.” It’s unclear how much material will be released, or when.

Mandelson, 72, was fired in September from his job as envoy in Washington after emails were published showing he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the late financier’s conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.

This week he resigned from the House of Lords and faces a police investigation for alleged misconduct in public office, after a trove of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice suggested Mandelson may have shared sensitive information with Epstein when he was government minister a decade and a half ago.

In 2009 he appears to have told Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses, and passed on an internal government report discussing a potential sale of U.K. government assets. The following year he appears to have tipped off Epstein about an imminent bailout of the European single currency.

The newly released files also suggest that in 2003-2004, Epstein sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Opening an investigation does not mean Mandelson will be arrested, charged or convicted.

An email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.

Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019, while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.

FILE - Britain's Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks during a reception at the ambassador's residence on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)