ISRAELI ATTACKS KILL CHILD AMONG SEVEN IN GAZA ON CEASEFIRE ANNIVERSARY

Israeli attacks killed at least seven people in Gaza on the first anniversary of the US-backed ceasefire, medical sources said; one report put the toll at eight. Among the dead was an eight-year-old girl, named as Shahd Abdul-Razzaq al-Najjar, killed by an Israeli drone in western Gaza City, an ambulance source said. Al-Shifa Hospital said four more people died and several were injured in a bomb attack near the Haider Abdel Shafi roundabout in Gaza City, and one more person died in a drone attack in the Tuffah neighbourhood. A woman also died in Khan Younis of injuries from an earlier Israeli attack that day.

The US-brokered ceasefire took effect on 10 October last year. Gaza's Ministry of Health said at least 1,481 Palestinians have been killed and 5,254 injured in Israeli attacks since then, while another report put the figure at more than 1,400. Critics have described the arrangement as holding "in name only" amid continued Israeli military action in the territory. The ministry said the wider conflict, which began in October 2023, has killed at least 74,370 people and injured 175,371.

In the 24 hours before Saturday's update, Israeli attacks killed at least nine people and injured 65 others in Gaza, the ministry said, with one more person dying of injuries sustained earlier. Separately on Saturday, Israeli forces carried out raids across southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon's National News Agency. The raids struck the Jarmaq area and the towns of al-Mansouri and Wadi Zibqin with air strikes and shelling. A journalist reporting from Gaza said the ceasefire had added to uncertainty in the territory, adding that the pattern of violence had not changed over the past year.