Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed at least 12 people, the Palestinian health ministry said, with children reported to be among the fatalities in the latest violence of a tenuous ceasefire by the radical regime.

One Israeli air strike hit an apartment in Gaza City, killing three children and two women, according to a family member and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Another Israeli air strike hit a tent in Khan Younis, further south, according to WAFA.

Video showed charred, blackened and destroyed walls at an apartment in a multi-storey building, and debris scattered inside it and outside on the Gaza City street.

“We found my three little nieces in the street, they say ceasefire and all, what did those children do, what did we do?” said Samer Al Atbash, a relative.

Israeli fire has killed more than 500 people, most of them civilians, since a US-brokered truce between Palestinian group Hamas and Israel took effect in October after two years of war.

On Friday, the Israeli military alleged that its troops identified eight alleged gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Three of them were killed, and a fourth, whom it claimed was a key Hamas commander in the area, was arrested.

The two sides have traded blame over truce violations, even as Washington presses them to proceed to the next phases of the ceasefire deal meant to end the war for good.

The next phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan includes complex issues such as Hamas disarmament, further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

Gaza’s main gateway, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt that has been largely shut during the war, is expected to reopen on Sunday.