Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
At least 31 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in a wave of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, marking the deadliest single day since a ceasefire agreement took effect in October, according to Palestinian media and health officials. The escalation prompted Hamas to accuse Israel of deliberately undermining the ceasefire, while the Israeli military said the strikes were a response to violations by militant groups.
Local media reported that Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in both northern and southern Gaza, hitting residential areas, a police facility, and tents sheltering displaced families. The Palestinian Information Center said the death toll reached 28 after what it described as multiple “massacres against civilians” in several governorates of the enclave.
One of the deadliest strikes targeted the Sheikh Radwan police station in northwestern Gaza City early Saturday, killing at least 16 people and wounding others, according to Palestinian sources. Gaza’s Interior Ministry confirmed that Israeli aircraft struck the facility, resulting in the deaths and injuries of police officers and personnel. Separate airstrikes hit a nearby home in the same neighborhood, causing additional casualties.
Hospital officials said other attacks struck a residential apartment in Gaza City and a tent camp for displaced people in Khan Younis, in the south. Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital said a strike in Gaza City killed a mother, three of her children, and a relative. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported that an airstrike on a tent camp sparked a fire, killing seven people from one extended family, including a father, three of his children, and three grandchildren, according to the Associated Press. Overall, the victims included at least two women and six children from different families.
In its first official response, the Israeli military said the strikes were carried out jointly by the army and the Shin Bet security agency and targeted commanders and infrastructure belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the operation was launched in response to what Israel described as a ceasefire violation a day earlier, when eight militants allegedly emerged from an underground tunnel network in the Rafah area. The army said three of the militants were killed and a fourth, described as a senior Hamas commander in the area, was arrested.
According to the Israeli military, overnight and early morning strikes targeted four Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and operatives, as well as weapons depots, arms production sites, and rocket-launching infrastructure in central Gaza. The army said it viewed any violation of the ceasefire “with utmost severity” and would continue to act against what it called attempts to carry out attacks against Israeli forces and civilians.
Hamas condemned the strikes as a “dangerous escalation” and a deliberate effort to sabotage the ceasefire agreement. In a statement, the group said the continued bombardment of Gaza, including the targeting of tents housing displaced families, constituted a “brutal crime” and a blatant breach of the truce. Hamas accused Israel of waging a “war of extermination” despite the passage of nearly four months since the ceasefire was signed, and said Israel was showing disregard for mediation efforts and for the countries guaranteeing the agreement.
The group called on international guarantors of the ceasefire and the United States to intervene immediately to halt what it described as Israel’s policy of undermining the agreement and to compel Israel to fully implement its commitments without delay or evasion.
Since the ceasefire came into force on October 11, more than 1,850 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in what Palestinian officials describe as over 1,300 Israeli violations of the agreement. Israel, for its part, accuses Palestinian armed groups of killing four Israeli soldiers since the truce began.
The latest violence comes as preparations are under way to implement the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, announced earlier this month by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. The next phase includes the formation of a technocratic Palestinian government in Gaza and addresses contentious issues such as the disarmament of Hamas, which the group has rejected, further Israeli withdrawals from the territory, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Amid these developments, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen on Sunday after being closed for most of the war, raising cautious hopes for increased humanitarian access even as fighting threatens to derail fragile diplomatic efforts.
