The Israel Defense Force said it killed three Palestinians who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in two separate incidents in the Strip’s south on Saturday, with two of them identified as young children.
The children who were killed in the Israeli Air Force strike in Bani Suiheila, on the outskirts of Khan Younis, on Saturday morning, were named by Palestinian media outlets as brothers Juma and Fadi Abu Asi, aged 11 and 8, respectively.
Bani Suheila lies on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line, to which the IDF withdrew on October 10 as part of the Gaza truce-hostage deal.
The IDF, in a statement, confirmed carrying out the airstrike, saying that troops from the Kfir Brigade identified two “suspects” crossing the line in the Khan Younis area, carrying out “suspicious activity in the ground” and approaching the forces “in a way that posed an immediate threat.”
The IAF struck and killed them “to remove the threat,” the military said.
Their uncle said the two children were killed while “gathering firewood” to help their wheelchair-bound father.
أب فلسطيني مصاب على كرسي متحرك يحمل جثماني طفليه الاثنين اللذين قتلا في قصف من مسيرة إسرائيلية استهدفتهما خلال تواجدهما في مدرسة الفارابي ببلدة بني سهيلا شرق مدينة خان يونس#الحدث #قناة_الحدث
— ا لـحـدث (@AlHadath) November 29, 2025
“They are children… what did they do? They do not have missiles or bombs, they went to gather wood for their father so he could start a fire,” Mohamed Abu Assi told Reuters as their funeral took place on Saturday.
Footage published by Arabic media showed the boys’ father praying as people alongside him carried the two body bags. Further footage from Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital showed the family kneeling over the body bags, with one of the boys’ faces peeking out.
In a separate incident in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday, troops of the Nahal Brigade identified a terror operative who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, according to the IDF.
The soldiers opened fire and “eliminated the terrorist to remove the threat,” the army said.
The IDF has repeatedly warned Palestinians not to approach Israeli troops still stationed in Gaza amid the ceasefire. The military has also begun placing physical markers along the Yellow Line, in addition to an online map showing the boundaries.
The line splits the Gaza Strip roughly in half. Under US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive Gaza ceasefire plan, Israel will stage two further withdrawals from Gaza as Hamas disarms and the Strip is handed over to international forces.
At least 354 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the ceasefire there went into effect on October 10, according to Hamas’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Three IDF soldiers have also been killed by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza during that time.
On Saturday, the Hamas health ministry said the number of Gazans killed by Israel since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, had crossed 70,000. The figure cannot be independently verified. The ministry said that 301 people were added to the toll since Thursday, taking it to 70,100. Two of those died in recent Israeli strikes, the ministry said, and the rest were identified from remains buried for some time in the rubble.
The war was launched in the wake of the Hamas massacre in southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were slain, and the terrorists took 251 people in Israel captive. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 476. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
