IDF strikes said to kill 6 in Gaza; Israel briefly closes crossings amid Iran fighting

Israeli strikes killed six Palestinians, among them a child, in Gaza on Monday, health officials in the Strip said. At the same time, Israel temporarily closed its crossings with the war-struck Palestinian enclave due to the outbreak of fighting with Iran, though it later announced that crossings would open again on Tuesday.

According to medics in Gaza, one Israeli strike hit near a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of coastal Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip. Two people were killed in the attack, reports said.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, medics said three Palestinians were killed and others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit near a group of people digging a well.

According to reports, the dead included an 8-year-old boy, Jad Suleiman, who was walking home from school at the time of the strike.

Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip killed one person and wounded three, medics said, taking Monday’s death toll to six.

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The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on the reported airstrikes in Gaza.

"He is gone… Jad is gone"

A bereaved father mourns his 8-year-old child, Jad Suleiman, who was killed while returning home from school in Jabalia camp, northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/owestwmluG

— PALESTINE ONLINE ???????? (@OnlinePalEng) June 8, 2026

Commenting on strikes over the weekend, the IDF said Monday that it killed three top members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

According to the military, a strike on Saturday in central Gaza killed Muhammad Abu Afash, chief of engineering in the Islamic Jihad; Farhat Harara, the group’s deputy head of engineering; and Abdullah Qadoum, the commander of Islamic Jihad’s anti-tank unit in northern Gaza.

The IDF said that recently, the three advanced attacks on troops and Israel, “in violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

????ELIMINATED: 3 senior Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza.

The terrorists eliminated:

– Muhammad Atiya Hassan Abu Afash, Head of the Engineering and Specializations Array in the Islamic Jihad, he was responsible for the development of the organization’s engineering capabilities

-… pic.twitter.com/UHgsj8u95J

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2026

Israel closes Gaza crossings amid Iran missiles

Meanwhile, as fighting erupted overnight between Israel and Iran, Israeli authorities announced Monday morning that all crossings with the Gaza Strip would remain closed until further notice.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body that manages humanitarian affairs in the Strip, said that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” after ballistic missiles were by from Iran and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, “including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”

But as the renewed fighting with Iran subsided by Monday afternoon amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, COGAT said that the crossings would reopen Tuesday.

“In accordance with the operational situation assessment and the removal of security restrictions in Israel, it has been decided to reopen the Kerem Shalom Crossing as of tomorrow for the gradual entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,” COGAT said, adding that the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt will also “reopen for the limited movement of people in both directions.”

It emphasized that the closure of the crossing points would “not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” and that “the substantial quantities of food that have entered the Strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to UN methodologies.”

Source: Talks between mediators, Palestinian factions continue in Cairo

Also on Monday, a Palestinian source said that negotiations on advancing the Gaza ceasefire would continue in Cairo, with mediators and Palestinian factions sitting down for talks.

The talks bring together mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, along with representatives of several Palestinian factions, as efforts continue to push forward negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

According to the source, mediators were due to meet a Hamas delegation before midday on Monday, followed by a wider meeting including all participating factions.

Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News channel said Sunday’s talks focused on “the proposed roadmap for completing the implementation of the agreement.”

“It was held in a positive atmosphere,” the channel reported, adding that there was agreement on the need to continue implementing the White House’s plan.

The first phase of the ceasefire involved the release of the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.

A transition to the second phase, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military, has been stalled for months.

The question of Gaza’s post-war governance also remains one of the main sticking points in negotiations on implementing the provisions of phase two.

Israel rejects any return of Hamas to power, but also rejects a direct takeover by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority at this stage.

Hamas, meanwhile, demands the establishment of a Palestinian state before considering handing over part of its arsenal — a condition which Israel firmly opposes.

Nearly 73,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the war started, most of them civilians, according to Gaza ⁠health ​authorities. The IDF says it has killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.