Gaza hospitals said to receive bodies of 3 Palestinians killed by IDF fire in past day

Hamas-run health ministry says 15 others were wounded, without specifying where or when; PM stresses to Witkoff that Israel demands Hamas be disarmed before Strip is reconstructed

By Noam Lehmann and Emanuel Fabian

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4 February 2026, 3:24 am

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Children walk past tents and makeshift shelters in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on February 3, 2026. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Gaza hospitals received the bodies of three people killed by IDF gunfire as well as 15 wounded people over the past 24 hours, the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry said in a Tuesday afternoon report.

The reported deaths came even as the shaky ceasefire signed in October progressed with the limited reopening of the Rafah Crossing, a move hailed by Palestinians and international organizations as a milestone for the agreement.

The Hamas-run health ministry did not identify those reportedly shot in the Gaza Strip, say where they were killed or injured, or specify the severity of the wounds. Nor did it say, as its near-daily reports frequently do, whether the dead were killed within the past 24 hours or before that.

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it killed four gunmen who approached troops near the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north.

The four were not identified in Palestinian media and it was unclear if any of their bodies were subsequently retrieved by Gaza’s first responders and brought to a hospital.

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, February 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Meanwhile, Palestinian media reported at least two people killed and several wounded by the IDF in Gaza since Monday afternoon.

The IDF did not comment on all but one of the reports, but regularly says such shootings come in response to ceasefire violations.

According to Palestinian media, 19-year-old Ahmed Aal was killed by IDF gunfire on Tuesday morning on the Hamas-controlled side of the ceasefire line south of Khan Younis, in the Strip’s south. His body was reportedly brought to Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital.

The military said it wasn’t immediately aware of any shootings in the area.

On Monday afternoon, a man was also reportedly shot dead by the IDF on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line in Jabalia, in the Strip’s north. The man was not immediately identified. His body was reportedly brought to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.

Several people were also reportedly wounded Monday afternoon in an Israeli strike in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The strike was said to have targeted a mourners’ tent.

Footage published by Arabic media showed first responders searching for people in the rubble in the immediate aftermath of the strike, and the wounded, including women and a small child, being taken to al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

مشاهد أولية لقصف إسرائيلي استهدف بيت عزاء في مخيم النصيرات وسط قطاع غزة، فيما أفاد مصدر في مستشفى العودة بوقوع عدد من المصابين جراء القصف#فيديو pic.twitter.com/gMhrz6B2NP

— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) February 2, 2026

According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli fire has killed more than 500 people since the US-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel took effect in October after two years of war. The Hamas figures cannot be confirmed.

Palestinian terror operatives have killed four Israeli soldiers since the truce, according to Israeli authorities.

The two sides have traded blame over ceasefire violations, even as Washington presses them to proceed to the next phases of the ceasefire deal meant to end the conflict for good.

The war started following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking a further 251 hostages. The body of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, was returned last week, ending the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan.

The next phase of Trump’s plan includes complex issues such as Hamas disarmament, which the group has long rejected, further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

Meeting US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he stressed Israel’s uncompromising demand for Hamas to be disarmed, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and the completion of the war objectives before Gaza’s reconstruction.”

In an uncharacteristically verbose statement after a meeting with a senior US official — one that might indicate some anxiety over the issues at hand — Netanyahu’s office said that he told the US side “that the Palestinian Authority will not be involved in governing the Strip in any way.”

He also updated US Ambassador Mike Huckabee that bags belonging to the UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees were used to hide weapons, his office said.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.