United States president Donald Trump has said the US-backed ceasefire is not at risk despite an Israeli bombardment of Gaza on Wednesday.
Israel said it was still committed to the ceasefire, despite its retaliation for the death of an Israeli soldier with day-long air strikes that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people.
Even as the military affirmed it still intended to uphold the truce in the Palestinian enclave, it announced it had carried out another airstrike in the north of Gaza where it said weapons had been stored. Medics said two people were killed in that attack.
The killing of an Israeli soldier in Gaza on Tuesday has triggered the worst escalation there since the ceasefire brokered by US president Donald Trump came into effect on October 10th after two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
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Israel says the soldier was killed in an attack by gunmen on territory within the “yellow line” where its troops withdrew under the truce. Hamas has rejected the accusation.
Israel described its latest attack on Wednesday as a targeted strike in the area of Beit Lahia in the north of the strip, where it said weapons had been stored. It said it would continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement while responding firmly to any violation.
In response to the soldier’s death, the military launched what it described as strikes targeting dozens of Hamas militants across the enclave, as well as weapons depots and tunnels belonging to the group.
It named 24 militant targets, including one it described as a Hamas commander who took part in an attack on a kibbutz during the October 7th, 2023 assault on southern Israel that triggered the war.
The Gaza health ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the 104 people killed in the air strikes.
`Systematic campaign’
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office issued a statement saying Israel’s list of targets was a product of a “systematic campaign of misinformation, forgery, and lies aimed at distorting the truth and covering up its ongoing crimes against civilians”.
In Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, neighbours said the entire Abu Dalal family had been wiped out in an air strike that flattened their home overnight.
In Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, neighbours said the entire Abu Dalal family had been wiped out in an airstrike that flattened their home overnight
A boy in a wheelchair wailed as the family’s bodies in white plastic body bags were loaded into the back of a flatbed truck. Crowds followed as the bodies were driven through the streets to a cemetery.
“It was erased from the civil registry: an entire family. About nine people: the father, the son, his wife, his son’s wife, and all the children were completely removed from the civil registry,” said neighbour Wael Najem (52).
Mr Trump said the ceasefire was not at risk.
“As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back,” he added.
“Nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire, Mr Trump added. “You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.”
He has touted the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange deal as one of the top foreign policy achievements of his second term, and he and his top aides have sought to keep the ceasefire from unravelling.
Underscored
The latest flare-up has underscored the stumbling blocks to a lasting peace. Key questions of Hamas disarming, further Israeli troop pullbacks and future governance of Gaza remain unresolved.
Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who has acted as a mediator, said on Wednesday that the attack on the Israeli soldier and the subsequent Israeli air strikes had been “very disappointing and frustrating for us”.
Displaced Palestinians feared the truce could fall apart.
“The sounds of explosions and planes made us feel as if war had started again,” Ismail Zayda (40), living in tents in western Gaza City with his 25-member family, told Reuters via a chat app.
Under the accord, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.
Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve them. Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by stalling in handing over bodies. – Reuters
