Israeli attacks on Gaza kill at least four, including children

At least four people have been killed and several wounded in Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, health officials said.

At least three people, including two children, were killed and eight people were wounded in an Israeli drone attack in the al-Kateeba district west of Gaza City in northern Gaza on Tuesday morning, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera.

Images shared online showed smoke rising and the sound of successive explosions from the attack.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said he counted at least 13 drones in the area at the time of the attack.

“For 35 minutes there were nonstop attacks involving drones, three of them hovering at a dangerously low level,” he said.

“Security personnel on the ground say they spotted a group of special forces who got into a direct exchange of fire. But the aerial coverage was so intense. The situation was very chaotic.”

In central Gaza, a separate Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah killed at least one person, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said in a statement, without providing further details.

The ⁠Israeli military ⁠said it ⁠struck several targets in Gaza, claiming ⁠the strikes were ⁠aimed at ⁠removing threats ⁠to ⁠its forces.