Israel Launches Deadly Strikes on Gaza, Saying Militants Attacked Its Soldiers

Gaza officials said the Israeli airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians. Israel said one of its soldiers was critically wounded in the attack by Palestinian gunmen.Members of the civil defense inspecting the site of a strike on a tent camp in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza on Wednesday.Credit...Mahmoud Issa/ReutersFeb. 4, 2026Updated 1:16 p.m. ETIsrael said it launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after militants opened fire on its soldiers overnight, critically wounding one. The attacks killed at least 21 Palestinians, including several children, according to Gaza health officials.The Israeli military said one of the airstrikes had targeted one Palestinian militant in particular, Bilal Abu Assi, and identified him as a platoon commander in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel and ignited the two-year Israel-Hamas war. In a statement, the military expressed regret for “any harm caused to uninvolved civilians.”Mr. Abu Assi, the military said, had led the assault on kibbutz Nir Oz, a farming community in southern Israel near the Gaza border, in which dozens of civilians were killed or captured. It added that he “likely” participated in holding captive the remains of Israeli hostages, and had participated in attacks on Israeli soldiers throughout the war.Palestinian news outlets, however, reported in July 2025 that a Bilal Abu Assi had been killed in an airstrike on a displaced-persons camp, and photos suggest that the two men may be one and the same.Asked about the similarity, an Israeli military spokeswoman said that Israel was confident of its targeting. But she acknowledged the resemblance and said she was looking into the possibility that either the reports last July were wrong or that Israel was mistaken in targeting Mr. Abu Assi on Wednesday.The violence, an almost routine occurrence nearly four months into a fragile truce, again prompted Israel and Hamas each to accuse the other of breaking the cease-fire.It also came less than 48 hours after the reopening of the Rafah border crossing, a vital lifeline between Gaza and Egypt. This allowed the first halting movements of Palestinians seeking medical treatment abroad, and others returning to Gaza in hopes of being reunited with their families.The Israeli military said that “terrorists” had opened fire on Israeli troops overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday in what it called a “blatant violation” of the cease-fire. It said its soldiers were conducting “routine operational activity” in northern Gaza east of the Yellow Line. That is the demarcation between the eastern part of Gaza held by Israel and the western part, where Hamas remains in power.An Israeli reservist was “severely wounded,” the military said. After “identifying the fire,” armored units and aircraft responded with what the military called “precise strikes in the area.”Later, in broad daylight on Wednesday, Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 21 people were killed and 38 injured. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that a paramedic was killed while trying to help people wounded in one of the airstrikes, in Khan Younis.ImageThe Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its paramedics was killed in a strike in Khan Younis.Credit...Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe military’s statement said it was aware of the claim that several uninvolved civilians, including a medical staff member, were hit in the strike.“Prior to and during the strike, steps were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible, including the use of surveillance and precise munitions,” it added.Israel has responded ferociously each time its forces have been fired upon since the cease-fire took effect on Oct. 10. Three of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since then, while more than 550 Palestinians have been killed. More than 70,000 Palestinians were killed during the war, according to Gaza health officials.Hamas did not directly address whether it had attacked the Israeli soldiers. It dismissed Israel’s description of the shooting as “nothing but a flimsy pretext to justify the continued killing and aggression against our people,” saying in its own statement that the Israeli strikes amounted to the “deliberate sabotage of efforts to solidify the cease-fire.”Amid the violence, the Rafah crossing remained open for a third day, offering some hope to the more than 18,500 Palestinians who U.N. officials say need to travel abroad for medical treatment, as well as the tens of thousands of Gaza residents who were stranded abroad during the war. The crossing had been closed since Israel seized Rafah in May 2024, except for a brief period during a short-lived cease-fire in early 2025.But the traffic through the crossing has been minuscule so far, with those making the very short trip across the border describing waits of many hours, the confiscation of belongings including children’s toys, and hostile questioning by Israeli soldiers after crossing into Gaza.The experience so far appears confusing and somewhat chaotic, with a hodgepodge of security forces involved, including Palestinian Authority officers, European police officers belonging to a border-monitoring unit, Israeli and Egyptian forces and even members of an anti-Hamas Gaza militia.A spokesman for the European Union Border Assistance Mission, Anouar El Anouni, said that just five patients and seven accompanying caregivers were able to leave Gaza through Rafah on Monday, and a total of 40 people, including patients and caregivers, were permitted to leave on Tuesday.Equal numbers of Palestinians were permitted to return to Gaza: 12 on Monday and 40 on Tuesday, Mr. El Anouni said.David M. Halbfinger is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He also held that post from 2017 to 2021. He was the politics editor from 2021 to 2025.Natan Odenheimer is a Times reporter in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.SKIP