DEIR EL-BALAH – In a tragic turn of events on Friday, Israeli forces opened fire across the ceasefire boundary in the northern Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of at least five Palestinians, including an infant. The casualties were confirmed by a nearby medical facility. This violence erupts amid a stalled truce between Israel and Hamas that has seen little progress in recent weeks.

According to Rami Mhanna, the managing director of Shifa Hospital, the fatalities occurred in Tuffah, a neighborhood situated in the eastern part of Gaza City.

The Israeli military reported that soldiers observed “a number of suspicious individuals… in command structures west of the Yellow Line” and subsequently engaged them. The military is currently investigating the incident and expressed regret over any harm caused to civilians not involved in the conflict.

The Yellow Line serves as the demarcation between the Israeli-controlled section of Gaza and the rest of the territory, established as part of a U.S.-mediated ceasefire agreement that took effect in October.

On the same day, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was preparing to convene a meeting in Florida with key officials from Middle Eastern nations involved in facilitating the Gaza ceasefire, as reported by a U.S. official.

The talks are an effort to push the ceasefire into its second, much more complex phase.

The first phase began in October, days after the two-year anniversary of the initial Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people. All but one of the 251 hostages taken that day have been released, alive or dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 70,660 Palestinians, roughly half of them women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Though the ceasefire, now in its third month, has mostly held, its progress has slowed amid accusations of violations by both sides.

The second phase of the deal is supposed to involve even bigger challenges — the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

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