Eight people killed by Israeli air strikes, Gaza civil defence agency says

At least eight people, including four children, have been killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza in the last 24 hours, the territory’s civil defence agency has said.

Four people, including three children, were killed when a drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza, the agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

An 11-year-old girl was killed near the Jabalia refugee camp and a strike on a school killed one person, he said, while a drone killed a man near Khan Younis and another was killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah.

Israel’s military had said it is checking the reports. Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of breaching a fragile ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli forces have killed at least 425 Palestinians in Gaza since the latest US-brokered truce took effect on 10 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a projectile was launched towards Israel from the area around Gaza City but that it fell within the Gaza Strip.

The military said it then “precisely struck the launch point”.

The current ceasefire in Gaza has largely halted fighting between Israeli forces and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, though both sides have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.

Since October 10, a fragile US-sponsored truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.

It is the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 22-point peace plan for Gaza, which saw the release of the remaining living Israeli hostages captured by Hamas during its 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel in exchange for Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails.

But since then, the plan has stalled.

While several bodies of hostages who died have been returned, one body has yet to be returned.

Phase two of the deal would require Hamas to disarm.

Trump has the said the group will have “hell to pay” if it does not do so “soon”. But Hamas has so far refused to do so.

Under the second phase of the plan, a technocratic government would be established in Gaza and Israeli troops would withdraw.

The reconstruction of Gaza would then begin.

But critics have suggested Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could seek to delay the process of the plan and instead push for Hamas to disarm before Israeli troops withdraw beyond their current lines.

Netanyahu has been accused of not wanting to engage seriously with the issue of a political future for Palestinians.

Hamas officials have said a full disarmament should take place alongside progress towards an independent Palestinian state.