It was reported that Israel launched an attack on Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and suspended the delivery of all aid supplies. This came after Israel accused Hamas of ambushing Palestinian soldiers, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers.
The Israel Defense Forces said it responded to “blatant violations of the ceasefire agreement” by conducting air strikes on dozens of “Hamas terrorist targets”, including weapons storage facilities, shooting posts, terrorist dens and other terrorist infrastructure. Later on Sunday, the military said it would resume the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.
The Israel Defense Forces said they used more than 120 rounds of ammunition to destroy a 6-kilometer-long (3.7-mile) underground tunnel. In addition, the Associated Press quoted an unnamed security official as saying that Israel has suspended the delivery of aid to Gaza “until further notice”.
The latest unrest occurred as all parties were working together to ensure the smooth progress of President Donald Trump’s peace plan, while Hamas said its team had gone to Cairo to follow up on the progress of the ceasefire a week ago.
An Israeli official said that Trump’s vice president JD Vance is expected to accompany White House mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to the area this week, indicating Washington’s commitment to upholding the ceasefire agreement reached on October 10.
The US Embassy in Jerusalem has not commented yet.
The interview was aired on Sunday, but it was recorded several days ago.
According to Trump’s plan supported by the international community, the ceasefire agreement aims to prompt Hamas to disarm and transfer its remaining governance rights to a foreign-supervised alternative Palestinian government. Hamas rejected these conditions.
So far, the partial implementation of the agreement has led to the redeployment of Israeli troops and tanks to the “Yellow Line”, but more than half of the broken areas are still under its control. This enabled Palestinian civilians in the remaining areas to start cleaning up the mess to a certain extent safely, while Hamas also returned the living hostages to Israel as required by the agreement.
Hamas said that at least 27 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in the past week. Israeli officials said that the Israeli army opened fire to prevent crossing the yellow line, which has now been marked with colorful posts as a clearer warning.
The Palestinian official news agency WAFA, citing medical sources, said that the Israeli army killed 44 people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
The Israeli military said that in the incident on Sunday, Palestinians fired anti-armor rockets and guns at the Israeli troops stationed in Rafah, a southern city within the Yellow Line. Two soldiers were killed and two others were injured. The Israeli military reported on Friday that a similar ambush also occurred in the area, but only a small-scale counterattack was carried out afterwards.
The air strike reached as far as Gaza City, which is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the north. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement and said it had ordered “tough action against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip”. Palestinian witnesses said that at least five people were killed. Residents in Gaza, which has been designated as a “dangerous war zone”, have been ordered to evacuate westward.
Hamas said it remains committed to a ceasefire and has lost contact with Palestinian militants operating in Rafah, and therefore bears no responsibility.
The Israel Defense Forces later issued a statement saying that it has “begun to re-implement the ceasefire agreement” and added that it will “resolutely crack down on any violation of the ceasefire”.
Hamas official Ezzat Al-Risheq said in the group’s Telegram message that Israel “continues to violate the agreement and fabricates untenable excuses to justify its crimes”.
Israel accused the Islamic faction of being evasive and said on Saturday that it would indefinitely postpone the reopening of the Rafah border crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border to transport humanitarian supplies. The aid supplies transported through the Israeli border have increased, but Palestinians believe that the scale is insufficient to meet the needs of the poor.
We haven’t ended this war yet. “If Hamas does not lay down its arms after rescuing all the hostages, we will return to fighting,” said Mili Regev, Israel’s transport minister and a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, in an interview with Israel Army Radio.
