Israel has killed eight people in the Gaza Strip and five more in the West Bank in the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials have said.
It comes as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas – which came into effect on 19 January – largely holds.
Four civilians, including two brothers, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Tuesday, according to Palestinian medics and relatives.
The Israeli military said its air force attacked “terrorists who were engaged in a suspicious activity on the ground in
central Gaza and posed a threat to the force”.
The strike took place near the Netzarim corridor, where Israeli forces carved out a military zone bisecting the territory before withdrawing from the area as part of the ceasefire.
Another 14 people were injured over the past 24 hours and rescuers also said to have retrieved 32 bodies from under the rubble.
Initially, the ceasefire plan would have seen the involved parties move from phase one to phase two – which would begin an attempt to permanently end hostilities.
However, Israel wanted to extend the first phase – something Hamas rejected.
To try and pressure the militant group into doing so, Israel last week suspended supplies of goods and electricity to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
Phase one ended on 1 March, and Israel wants Hamas to release half the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Hamas, meanwhile, wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which would see the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace agreed.
Mediators in Doha and Cairo continued to try and hammer out a breakthrough to resolve the disputes that threaten to plunge the sides back into armed conflict.
During the ceasefire, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza who the military said had approached its troops or entered unauthorised areas.
