DEIR EL-BALAH – Health officials report that Israeli airstrikes across Gaza have resulted in the deaths of at least 13 individuals. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to reveal the Board of Peace, which will have a critical role in maintaining the delicate ceasefire.

According to health authorities and relatives, the casualties in northern Gaza include at least one child, following a series of strikes in that region and to the east of Gaza City.

The Israeli military has confirmed targeting Hamas facilities and operatives in the northern and southern parts of Gaza. This action was in retaliation to an unsuccessful rocket launch by militants from the Gaza City area.

The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is still in its early phase, as ongoing efforts aim to retrieve the final hostage’s remains from Gaza.

Looking ahead, President Trump plans to introduce the Board of Peace next week, a move he intends to lead personally. This marks a significant progression in his Middle East peace initiative, a process that has seen slow progress since the October ceasefire that ended over two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The U.S. official and another official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

On Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov would be the “designated” director-general for the board. Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister who served as the U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. Mideast peace envoy from 2015-2020. During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease tensions between Israel and Hamas.

Under Trump’s plan, the board would supervise a new technocratic Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts so far.

On Thursday, Egyptian and European Union leaders met in Cairo and urged the deployment of the international stabilization force. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Hamas still refused to disarm and called the situation “extremely severe.”

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the nearly three-month-old ceasefire. Continued Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 400 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

The Israeli military says any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.

The strikes Thursday killed an 11-year-old girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a teenage girl and two boys in a tent camp. At least a dozen others were injured, hospital officials said.