Palestinians in Gaza City the morning after a night of intense Israeli strikes, on Oct. 29, 2025. (Credit: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)
Gaza's civil defense agency told AFP on Wednesday that dozens of Israeli strikes overnight killed at least 50 people in the Palestinian territory, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said "nothing" would jeopardize the cease-fire agreement he helped broker.
The agency said 22 children were among those killed, as well as women and the elderly, and that around 200 people were wounded.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal described the situation in Gaza as "catastrophic and terrifying," calling the strikes "a clear and flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement."
"The Israeli strikes targeted tents for displaced people, homes and the vicinity of a hospital in the Strip," he told AFP.
Al-Shifa hospital said one of the strikes hit its backyard. Al-Awda Hospital said it had received several bodies, including those of four children, killed in strikes on central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel had accused Hamas of violating the cease-fire and killing an Israeli soldier in Rafah, southern Gaza.
While Israel did not say where its troops were attacked, Hamas has said its fighters had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah" and reaffirmed its commitment to the U.S.-brokered cease-fire.
Gazan health authorities said the strikes killed at least 26 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, four in a building in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis.
"As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "So the Israelis hit back, and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back."
The Israeli military confirmed the soldier's death on Wednesday.
"Nothing is going to jeopardize" the cease-fire, Trump said. "You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave."
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office saying he had ordered immediate "powerful attacks."
An Israeli military official claimed Hamas had violated the cease-fire by attacking Israeli forces who were stationed within the deployment line agreed upon in the cease-fire, known as the 'yellow line.'
The U.S.-backed cease-fire agreement went into effect on Oct. 10, halting two years of Israeli war on Gaza.
"If [Hamas] are good, they are going to be happy, and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated," Trump said. "Nobody knows what happened to the Israeli soldier, but they say it was sniper fire. And it was retribution for that, and I think they have a right to do that."
