Hamas Health Ministry claims that IDF strike in Gaza kills 11, including three journalists

The IDF later corroborated a strike, noting that soldiers identified several suspects "who operated a drone" posing a threat to their safety. The military, therefore, conducted a strike due to the threat that the drone posed to the troops.

In the latest violence disrupting a brittle, three-month-old ceasefire, Palestinian health officials said an airstrike killed three Palestinian journalists traveling in a car in the central Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian security source confirmed the vehicle belonged to the committee but gave no further details. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gazan medics said three people, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed as a result of Israeli tank shelling east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. Two others, a boy of 13 and a woman, were killed in two Israeli shooting incidents in eastern Khan Yunis in Gaza's south, they said.

Three other Palestinians were killed in other shootings across the coastal enclave, taking Wednesday's death toll to at least 11, the Hamas Health Ministry claimed.

Separately, in Gaza, the IDF issued an evacuation order in the southern area of the Strip, the first one since October's ceasefire, as residents and Hamas said on Tuesday the military was expanding the area it controls.

Residents of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis, said the leaflets were dropped on Monday on families living in tent encampments in the Al-Reqeb neighborhood.

"Urgent message. The area is under IDF control. You must evacuate immediately," said the leaflets, written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, which the army dropped over the Al‑Reqeb neighborhood in the town of Bani Suhaila.

Israel's military denied having plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from the area. It confirmed the leaflet drops but said they were aimed at warning Palestinians not to cross the armistice line with Hamas.

In the two-year war before the US brokered ceasefire was signed in October, Israel dropped leaflets over areas that were subsequently raided or bombarded, forcing some families to move several times.

Residents and a source from the Hamas terror group said this was the first time they had been dropped since then.

Later on Wednesday, the IDF stated that troops in Gaza had identified and killed a terrorist who had crossed the Yellow Line, "posing an imminent threat to their safety."

Meanwhile, Hamas-affiliated health authorities said that Israeli fire killed five Palestinians, including two boys, in central and southern Gaza.

Further on, Palestinian medics said three people, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed as a result of Israeli tank shelling east of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Two others, a boy, 13, and a woman, were supposedly killed in two separate Israeli shooting incidents in eastern Khan Yunis in Gaza's south, they said.

Residents said the two incidents occurred in Palestinian-controlled areas.

The IDF's Arabic spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning for three villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon.

The villages are Qanarit, al-Kfour, and Jarjoua.

The military will attack Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the areas in the coming hours, he stated, in order to reduce the terror group's attempts to rebuild and boost its operational activities in the region.

The IDF confirmed that it began strikes shortly after Adraee's warning was published.

The military later added that it struck weapons storage facilities and an underground site for storing terror weapons.

These were "located in the center of civilian areas," the military stated.

The military later confirmed that it struck and killed Abu Ali Salameh, who served as a Hezbollah liaison officer in a village in southern Lebanon.

Salameh managed the terror group's activities in the area, enabling Hezbollah to operate within the civilian environment and private properties within the village, the military noted.

He also worked to "embed terrorist infrastructure within the heart of the population, through the deliberate and cynical exploitation of residents to advance the objectives of the Hezbollah terrorist organization."

The IDF requested that the enforcement mechanism take action against a weapons storage facility in the area on December 13. In his role, Salameh received a report from the Lebanese Armed Forces and forwarded it on to Hezbollah terror operatives.

LAF soldiers arrived at the scene, but Hezbollah terrorists prevented them from dismantling any terror infrastructure at the site, and enabled other terror operatives to smuggle weapons out of the property, the IDF stated.

Salameh then claimed to LAF that there were no weapons on site, despite LAF finding "several suspicious boxes" which were removed from the rear door of the property.

The IDF struck four border crossings between the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah terrorists to smuggle weapons, the military added on Wednesday evening.

In addition, the military struck Muhammad Awasha, a key weapons smuggler for the terror group, near Sidon, who used a front company that ordered and transferred prohibited goods from different countries, including Iraq, Syria, and Gulf states.

Awasha also operated many weapons smugglers who are responsible for smuggling terror weapons from Iraq to Syria and Lebanon.

According to the military, the air control system had identified a drone that had crossed into Israeli territory. Troops downed the drone and recovered a light machine gun that it had been transporting. The weapon was then transferred for further analysis.

Meanwhile, in an operation carried out by Israeli security forces this week, the terrorist Fadi Bahati, who served as a central explosives manufacturer in terrorist organizations in Tulkarm, was arrested.