Gaza health officials say 4 killed in Israeli strikes, including child

Palestinians attempting to extinguish a fire following an Israeli air strike that hit a vehicle in Gaza City on Sept 19.

JERUSALEM – Gaza’s health officials said on Sept 19 that Israeli fire killed at least four people in the Palestinian territory, including a 10-year-old girl and the son of a top government official.

A statement from Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that the child “succumbed to wounds sustained this morning from Israeli army fire north of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip”.

An air strike also killed Baseer Al-Bursh, the son of Munir Al-Bursh who serves as director-general of Gaza’s health ministry, in an encampment for displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, the ministry said.

Speaking during his son’s funeral, Munir Al-Bursh said the killing was “a continuation of (Israel’s) crimes”, according to a ministry statement.

In addition, two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in two separate strikes near Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital and the territory’s civil defence, a rescue agency operating under Hamas authority.

Munir Al-Bursh and his wife attending the funeral of their son Basir in Gaza City on Sept 19.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP inquiry on the strikes.

Israel in October 2025 agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States but since then has advanced further into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up in strikes targeting Hamas, which led the unprecedented Oct 7, 2023, attack against Israel, and no pullout from Gaza until Hamas gives up all of its weapons.

The 2023 attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also dragged into Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.

The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,800 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since the ceasefire was announced in 2025, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures are considered generally reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has identified five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the death of one civilian contractor. AFP