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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Saturday that they launched strikes throughout Gaza in retaliation against what they claimed was a breach of the ceasefire. This response was triggered by the identification of eight militants, who reportedly emerged from underground terror facilities in eastern Rafah.
The IDF stated that the strikes targeted four commanders and additional militants affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They also destroyed a weapons storage site, a weapons manufacturing facility, and two rocket launch sites associated with Hamas in central Gaza.
According to the Associated Press, hospitals in Gaza, overseen by the Hamas-led Health Ministry, reported that at least 30 Palestinians lost their lives due to these attacks.
Images showed rescue teams retrieving a victim’s body from the wreckage left by an Israeli airstrike on a police station in Gaza City on January 31, 2026, as reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry. (Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
Hospital officials confirmed that the casualties involved civilians, including two women and six children from separate families. An airstrike on a police station in Gaza City resulted in the death of at least 14 individuals, with several others injured, according to Shifa Hospital’s director, Mohamed Abu Selmiya.
The strikes came a day after Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire. An Israeli military official told the AP that the strikes were carried out in response to ceasefire violations but declined to comment on specific targets.
The violence unfolded one day before the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was set to reopen, a move seen as a key step in the second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. That phase includes limited border reopenings, efforts to demilitarize Gaza and discussions over postwar governance.
Israel has said the Rafah crossing has been a focal point for concerns about weapons smuggling by Hamas, and that security arrangements would accompany any reopening.
Rescue workers carry the body of a victim amid debris following an Israeli airstrike on a police station in Gaza City on Jan. 31, 2026, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel agreed to a “limited reopening” of the crossing under President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
Israel has said it continues to carry out strikes across the region in response to violations of ceasefire understandings. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure and engineering vehicles in southern Lebanon, accusing the group of attempting to reestablish terror infrastructure in violation of agreements with Israel.
Meanwhile, a senior Israeli military official acknowledged that the IDF believes the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s overall death toll from the war is largely accurate, according to The Times of Israel. The military estimates around 70,000 Gazans were killed during the two-plus-year conflict triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Rescuers and onlookers stand amid the rubble of a police station following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Jan. 31, 2026, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
The Gaza Health Ministry currently reports 71,667 deaths, including more than 450 since the October 2025 ceasefire, though Israeli officials said the estimate does not include bodies believed to be buried under rubble.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 509 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began Oct. 10.
Israel also returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians on Thursday, days after recovering the remains of the last Israeli hostage, a Gaza Health Ministry official said, according to the AP.
The transfer marked the final hostage-detainee exchange under the first phase of the ceasefire.