Israeli airstrike on car in Gaza City kills four, others wounded, medics say

CAIRO (Reuters) -An Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City killed at least four people and wounded several others, local health authorities said on Saturday, in a further test of a fragile ceasefire between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

Witnesses and medics said the attack in the densely populated Rimal neighbourhood set the vehicle ablaze. It was not immediately clear whether the four dead were passengers of the car or included passersby. Dozens of people rushed to extinguish the fire and rescue the victims.

The October 10 ceasefire in the two-year Gaza war has eased the conflict, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza’s ruins. Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased.

But violence has not completely halted. Hamas has been seeking to reassert itself and some are concerned about a de facto partition of the territory, where conditions are dire. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce.

Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began and it has attacked scores of fighters.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly traded blame for truce violations.

(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)