In a relentless sequence of air raids, Israeli military jets targeted the Gaza Strip for the second consecutive day on Monday, resulting in the tragic deaths of at least 18 Palestinians, confirmed medical sources. This escalation comes on the heels of US President Donald Trump’s announcement heralding progress towards implementing a peace agreement established last year.
Beginning at daybreak, Israeli aircraft targeted key locations, including Gaza City in the north, the central area of Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis in the south. The strikes wrought the highest single-day death toll seen in recent weeks, according to local health officials in Palestine.
President Trump’s declaration last Friday conveyed optimism when he asserted that Hamas and other Palestinian factions had consented to lay down their arms. Many saw this promise as a potential game-changer in the long-standing conflict.
Despite these diplomatic developments, skepticism lingers. On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a participant in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, expressed doubts regarding Hamas’ commitment to disarmament. He cautiously stated that while the Israeli government remains open to giving Hamas a chance to disarm, confidence in them following through is limited.
Speaking with Israel’s Army Radio, Cohen emphasized that no formal accord had been reached to cease fire on Gaza. He further argued that should Hamas fail to lay down arms, Israel might need to assume complete control over the Gaza enclave, which it already partially occupies, to ensure security and stability.
“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.
Later on Sunday, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office told Reuters news agency that Israel expressed concerns to the US on the disarmament plan.
“The most important concern for Israel is that nothing can happen before Hamas completely and truly disarms …,” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said.
Attacks hit Gaza 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 nine-year-old son were 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. Later on Sunday, another two people were killed in the city’s eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood, they added.
One person was killed near Jabalia in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
In a subsequent attack on Gaza City, medics said an Israeli airstrike on a car killed at least three Palestinians near Saraya Square.
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.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza, said the strikes across Gaza came despite efforts by the board and mediators to bring Palestinian factions to agree on the roadmap for the implementation of Trump’s plan.
He said in a post on X that he was working with parties, mediators and regional partners to “de-escalate and create the space for the full implementation of the President’s plan”.
“Achieving a lasting peace is hard but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts,” Mladenov said.
At least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to health authorities.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed over the same period, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas says it has shown flexibility
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.