Gaza's civil defence agency said 22 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, as Israel's military said it was hitting Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip.
Twelve people were killed in Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory and 10 in the southern Khan Yunis area, the civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was striking Hamas targets after militants opened fire towards an area where troops were operating in the territory's south.
"This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF (Israeli military) injuries were reported. In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.
Despite flare-ups, a fragile truce has largely been holding in Gaza since October 10.
Since then, Israel has carried out repeated strikes against what it says are Hamas targets, resulting in the death of more than 280 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Wednesday's strikes were among the deadliest in the territory since the ceasefire entered into force.
The highest daily toll was registered on October 29, when more than 100 people were killed in Israeli strikes, according to civil defence figures and data received by AFP from five Gaza hospitals.
The ceasefire is based on a US-brokered deal that also includes the return to Israel of the last 48 hostages, both living and dead.
While the bodies of only three hostages remain in Gaza, the implementation of the second stage of US President Donald Trump's peace plan has yet to be agreed, particularly as it concerns disarming Hamas, establishing a transitional authority and deploying an international stabilisation force.
The war was sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,513 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
- Lebanon strikes -
Israel also conducted several strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in several towns, and accused the Iran-backed group of trying to rebuild its capabilities.
The Israeli military has kept up frequent air strikes in Lebanon in spite of a ceasefire sealed last November that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.
Wednesday's Lebanon raids came a day after 13 people were killed in a strike Israel said targeted Hamas members in a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the country -- the deadliest attack in Lebanon since the truce came into effect.
Also on Wednesday, Israel's top leaders visited Israeli troops stationed inside Syrian territory, in a buffer zone intended to separate the two countries' forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops that their presence had "immense importance" to safeguard Israel.
The visit was sharply condemned by Damascus, which called it "a serious violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity", and reiterated its "firm demand" that Israel withdraw its forces from Syrian territory.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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