Mohammad Sio
20 January 2025•Update: 21 January 2025
ISTANBUL
An Israeli sniper shot and killed a Palestinian child Monday and injured another in central Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The child, Zakaria Hamid Yahya Barbakh, was killed near Al-Awda Square in central Rafah when Israeli forces opened fire. Another child was injured while attempting to retrieve Zakaria’s body, it said.
Two Palestinians, including a child, were killed, and nine others, among them children, were injured earlier by Israeli gunfire in Rafah, according to reports.
Sources told Anadolu that Israeli tanks breached a buffer zone and opened heavy fire on civilians. The sources said the military advanced 850 meters (2,789 feet) into the area, exceeding an agreed 700-meter limit outlined in the ceasefire agreement.
The killing marked a significant violation of the truce. No comments have been issued from Gaza authorities, ceasefire mediators in Egypt, Qatar and the US, or Israeli officials.
Earlier Monday, a medical source at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis reported that three Palestinians were injured when an Israeli drone dropped an explosive device near their homes in eastern Rafah.
Witnesses confirmed that Israeli forces stationed along Rafah’s eastern border have been preventing residents from approaching the buffer zone, in line with the ceasefire agreement.
Displaced Palestinians began returning to Rafah on Sunday after the Israeli military’s ground offensive, which started May 6.
Under the truce, the buffer zone comprises Palestinian land controlled militarily by Israel, with no clear plans for withdrawal, raising concerns about long-term violations and instability
The ceasefire agreement took effect Sunday, with the first phase set to last 42 days, during which negotiations are to take place on the second and third phases, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US.
Under the agreement, Hamas released three Israeli women in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were women and children.
Nearly 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 110,700 injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
