Aug 12 (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike critically wounded a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip, in an attack the Israeli military said targeted a Hamas commander planning attacks against Israeli troops operating in the territory.
It was the first such airstrike in over a week, after Israel scaled back major attacks under U.S. pressure to implement the latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.
Palestinian medics and witnesses said the man who was wounded was riding on a rickshaw in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the man targeted was hit in an aerial strike in order to remove the threat to Israeli military troops.
It added that its forces would remain deployed in the area under the Southern Command in accordance with the agreement and would continue operations against immediate threats.
Israeli fire has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since a U.S.-backed ceasefire halted two years of full-scale war in October.
It is unclear how many of those killed might be militants since Hamas does not usually disclose information about dead fighters.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period, according to an Israeli tally.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
