Rafah medical exits halted
\nFour children among those that Israel killed in another violation of the \u2018ceasefire\u2019
\n Gaza
\nIsraeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 20 Palestinians, including four children, in Gaza on Wednesday, and Israel halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian officials said.
\nAmong the dead was a medic who rushed to help victims of a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis and was then killed by a second attack on the same location, health officials said. Other strikes hit Gaza City in the north, where health officials said a 5-month-old boy was killed.
\nIsraeli tanks had fired on Gaza, and airstrikes had been launched after a gunman shot at Israeli soldiers and injured a reservist near the armistice line, the Israeli military claims.
\nThe strikes targeted Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis. A Gazan health official told Reuters that Israel had also halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, two days after it had reopened, allowing a trickle of Palestinians to cross for the first time in months.
\nA spokesperson for the Red Crescent said patients had arrived at a hospital in Khan Younis in preparation for crossing Rafah for treatment, only to be informed that Israel had postponed the evacuations.
\n\u201cThey called the patients and said today there is no travel at all, the crossing is closed,\u201d Raja\u2019a Abu Teir, a Palestinian patient who was set to be evacuated, told Reuters at the hospital, where several patients were waiting in ambulances.
\nThe Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza, COGAT, said in a statement on Wednesday that the Rafah crossing remained open, but they had not received the necessary coordination details from the World Health Organisation to facilitate the crossing.
\nThe WHO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
\nAn Egyptian security source told Reuters that efforts were being made to reopen the crossing, and that Israel had cited \u201csecurity issues\u201d in the Rafah area as the reason for the closure.
\nReopening crossing part of Trump plan
\nReopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the October \u201cceasefire\u201d that set out the first phase of US President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas.
\nSixteen patients from Gaza and 40 of their escorts crossed into Egypt on Tuesday, Gazan medics told Reuters. A Hamas police source told Reuters that at least 40 people crossed from Egypt to Gaza late on Tuesday.
\nWednesday\u2019s violence brings the number of Palestinians killed since the border reopened to 28, according to a tally of reports from health officials.
\nOn Saturday, before its reopening, Israeli strikes killed more than 30 Palestinians in Gaza. The military claimed it launched those strikes after gunmen \u201cemerged from a tunnel\u201d in a Gaza area under Israeli occupation.
\nIn January, Trump declared the start of the second phase of the \u201cceasefire\u201d, where the sides would negotiate the shattered enclave\u2019s future governance and reconstruction.
\nKey issues like the withdrawal of Israeli forces from over 50% of Gaza, which they currently illegally occupy, and the disarmament of Hamas remain unresolved, while the \u201cceasefire\u201d has been marked by near-daily violations by Israel.
\nSince the start of the ceasefire, Israeli fire has killed at least 530 people, most of them civilians. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed by opposing forces in the same period, according to Israeli authorities.
\nIsrael\u2019s two-year genocide on the Gaza Strip killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, a figure that Israel has accepted according to Haaretz, displaced most of its population, and left much of the strip in ruins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rafah medical exits halted Four children among those that Israel killed in another violation of the \u2018ceasefire\u2019 Gaza Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 20 Palestinians, including four children, in Gaza on Wednesday, and Israel halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian officials said. Among the dead was a medic who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-529599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n