CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 13 Palestinians, medics said, despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement.
From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir Al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Younis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.
Trump’s assertion on Thursday that Palestinian Hamas militants and other armed groups had agreed to disarm had raised hopes of a turning point in the conflict.
On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security cabinet — told Israel’s Army Radio the government would give Hamas the opportunity to disarm but said he was “very skeptical” that would happen.
Cohen added that there had been no deal to halt attacks on Gaza and that he saw a need for Israel — which already controls 70 percent of the enclave — to take full control of it if Hamas did not disarm.
“In the deal we signed with the United States, our stance is that Hamas must be dismantled. This is the first thing that must happen,” he added.
ATTACKS HIT TENTS, APARTMENT AND HOUSE, MEDICS SAY
Strikes on Deir Al-Balah killed at least four people, Palestinian health officials said, and a separate attack wounded five people and set some tents ablaze in Mawasi near Khan Younis, according to the civil emergency service.
A couple and their 9-year-old son were also killed in a strike on a house in Mawasi, Palestinian officials said.
Another couple was killed with their child in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City, where two more people died in a strike on a tent near the office of the Egyptian representative mission, medics said. Another person was killed near Jabalia in northern Gaza, they added.
The Israeli military said a strike on an apartment in Deir Al-Balah was targeting two commanders of Hamas’ elite “Nukhba” force.
The Gaza City and Jabalia strikes also targeted “military operatives” but the military was still reviewing the situation, it added.
At least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to Gaza health authorities. They do not say how many combatants may be among the dead. Hamas does not disclose figures on its war dead.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed over the same period, according to Israeli tallies.
HAMAS SAYS IT HAS SHOWN FLEXIBILITY
Trump’s Board of Peace, the US-led body overseeing the ceasefire, published on Friday a 15-point roadmap setting out the final steps for implementing the agreement.
Hamas has said Israel must stop its attacks in Gaza and pull its troops back, in accordance with other key terms of the ceasefire deal, before it will agree to hand over weapons to a new Palestinian body named to run Gaza.
A senior Hamas official said on Sunday the group had demonstrated “considerable flexibility,” but accused Israel of wanting to impose a de-facto situation on the ground by intensifying its strikes.
“This escalation, coinciding with progress on the political track, clearly demonstrates that the occupation government is seeking to undermine efforts aimed at ending the war and to impose facts on the ground by force,” Basem Naim said in a statement.
Former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, said in a Facebook post that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser involved in the US initiative, had told him he was working with the Israeli side to stop attacks on Gaza.
Dahlan said contacts with the US were continuing to ensure the agreement was fully implemented, adding that its success now depended on Israel fully ending its daily attacks on Gaza.
Reuters has reached out to the US State Department for comment on Dahlan’s remarks. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
