When Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Sunday, October 28, four Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, Xinhua reported, citing local authorities and medical officials from Gaza’s autonomous health services. The attacks were noted to target a Hamas‑run checkpoint in the Mawasi area of Rafah and a civilian crowd in Al‑Bayouk, central Khan Younis, with no immediate statement from the Israeli military.
The first strike involved an Israeli drone that fired a missile at a checkpoint operated by the Crossings and Borders Authority in Rafah. Local sources confirmed the hit and that the checkpoint’s workers—who were employed by Gaza’s agriculture, economy, and petroleum and gas authorities—were among the casualties. These workers were reportedly injured or killed; the exact number of wounded was not specified in the brief report.
According to Gaza medical officials, the Rafah strike resulted in the deaths of at least three individuals and wounded several others, some seriously. The strike area was described as a checkpoint, implying the target was a governmental facility rather than a strictly civilian site.
The separate attack on Al‑Bayouk targeted a group of people gathered in a central suburb of Khan Younis. Medical sources said that one person was killed and that other gun‑shot injuries were recorded, but the report did not identify the circumstances that drew the landing of the missile in that location.
Those incidents brought the Gaza death toll since the October 2025 ceasefire to 1,568, Gaza’s health authorities say. The same health bulletin, in its daily report, also recorded 5,649 wounded over the same period. Since the outbreak of the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict on October 7, 2023, cumulative deaths in Gaza have reached 74,564 and 175,770 have been treated for injuries.
The context for the latest flare is a fragile ceasefire that has been in place since October 2025. As Xinhua noted, the 68‑day truce, mediated by Egypt, had largely frozen large‑scale hostilities in the Gaza Strip. However, intermittent exchanges between intra‑Gaza actors and the Israeli military continued, making roadside checkpoints and civilian gatherings potential flashpoints.
In light of the signal that Israeli forces are striking checkpoints, Xinhua emphasised that the Israeli military had not issued any statement about the June‑October period, leaving the motive for the strikes unclear. The lack of official commentary raises questions about whether the strikes were precision targeting of militant infrastructure, or broader retaliation against perceived threats near civilian zones.
The medical and local accounts, however, underscore the substantial toll on civilians. The victims were appearing as employees of public authorities, not hardened combatants, and the Al‑Bayouk incident involved a civilian crowd. Whether these were deliberate or collateral remains a central question for the international community.
Local Palestinian authorities, reflected in the health ministry’s tally, have repeated that the ceasefire has been violated on both sides multiple times over the past year. While this specific report does not mention new statements from Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, it re‑affirms the ongoing death toll narrative used by Palestinian officials to highlight the severe humanitarian impact of the conflict.
The international community, while not mentioned directly in Xinhua’s report, has historically responded to Gaza casualties attributable to Israeli air actions with calls for restraint and renewed diplomatic engagement. The latest killings, therefore, feed into broader calls for a return to the 2025 ceasefire accords or new negotiations.
In the days that followed, the Gaza health ministry continues to update the daily death and injury counts, providing increasingly granular data that feeds into human rights reports and calls for accountability. Both the organisation and external observers now face open questions over the policy of targeted strikes near civilian checkpoints and the extent to which such actions comply with the rules of engagement agreed upon in the 2025 ceasefire.
