Arya News - At least 17 people, including six children, were killed in military strikes across the Gaza strip after gunmen seriously injured an Israeli soldier.
Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Hospitals in Gaza said at least 17 people, six of them children, had been killed by Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire on the south and north of the strip on Wednesday.
Israel said it carried out precision strikes in response to a " blatant violation " of the cease-fire in place after militants open fire in the north, seriously injuring a soldier near the so-called Yellow Line separating areas occupied by its forces from those that remain under Hamas control.
The military said Israel Defense Forces units were conducting " routine operational activity " when they came under attack.
In Gaza City, the Al-Shifa hospital said 13 bodies were brought there, including five children, after they were killed in strikes on eastern areas of the city while Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the south said it had received four bodies, including one child, following strikes on encampments of displaced people in the Qizan Rashwan district.
Fire from military vehicles was reported in south and central districts of Khan Younis along with shelling of coastal areas by Israel naval vessels offshore.
The central region of the strip was also affected, with reports of heavy shelling east of the al-Bureij Refugee Camp.
Wednesday"s incidents come four days after Palestinian authorities said 30 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that Israel launched in response to what it said were cease-fire violations ahead of the reopening of the Rafah border crossing.
Israel said it carried out the strikes after militants emerged from a tunnel in Rafah, which is controlled by Israel, in breach of the cease-fire.
The reopening of Gaza"s only land crossing that does exit into Israel went ahead as planned on Sunday in line with steps set out in the cease-fire deal after the body of the final Israeli hostage was recovered, identified and returned to his family on Jan. 26.
At least 529 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in the four months since a U.S.-brokered cease-fire came into force Oct. 10, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry which is run by Hamas.
Less than three weeks after the deal was signed, more than 100 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli reservist in the engineering corp in an incident that the IDF said at the time also occurred on its side of the cease-fire line.
Dual Israeli-American citizen Master Sgt. Yona Efraim Feldbaum was among four Israeli soldiers killed in attacks in Gaza since the October truce -- with each side accusing the other of breaches of the cease-fire on an almost daily basis.