GAZA — Israeli tank fire and airstrikes killed 23 Palestinians, including six children, in Gaza on Wednesday, according to local health officials. The attacks mark the latest escalation undermining a fragile truce in the enclave.

Among the dead was a medic who had rushed to assist victims of an earlier strike in Khan Younis before being killed in a second attack on the same site. In Gaza City, officials said a five-month-old boy was among those killed. The violence comes just three days after Israel reopened Gaza’s main border crossing with Egypt, a key step in a U.S.-backed ceasefire arrangement.

Residents in Mawasi, a coastal area near Khan Younis crowded with displaced families, said tents were torn apart by the strikes. Nearly all of Gaza’s population of more than two million has been forced from their homes during the conflict.

The Israeli military said the strikes were launched in response to militants opening fire on troops near the armistice line with Hamas, severely injuring one soldier. Hamas condemned the action, saying it undermined efforts to stabilize the ceasefire, and called for international pressure to halt violations.

Rafah crossing disruption

Palestinian patients preparing to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border were told Wednesday that passage had been postponed, before later being instructed to prepare again. Israel’s coordination agency, COGAT, said the crossing remained open but that it had not received required details from the World Health Organization to facilitate movement. An Egyptian security source said efforts were underway to reopen the crossing, citing Israeli concerns over security in the Rafah area.

Reopening Rafah was part of the October ceasefire deal, which outlined the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas. On Tuesday, 16 patients and 40 escorts crossed into Egypt, while at least 40 people entered Gaza from Egypt later that day, according to medics and police sources.

Wednesday’s casualties bring the number of Palestinians killed since the border reopened to 29, health officials said. On Saturday, before Rafah’s reopening, Israeli strikes killed more than 30 people in Gaza. The military said those attacks followed gunmen emerging from a tunnel in an area under Israeli control.