Israeli Airstrikes Kill 30 In Gaza Amid Ceasefire Talks

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including several children, as efforts to advance a ceasefire appeared to edge forward amid renewed accusations of truce violations, according to Associated Press.

Hospitals in Gaza said the strikes were among the deadliest single-day tolls since the ceasefire took effect in October. The attacks hit multiple locations, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, AP reported. Hospital officials said the dead included two women and six children from two different families.

Another airstrike hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said. Shifa Hospital also reported that a man was killed in a separate strike on the eastern side of the Jabaliya refugee camp.

The strikes came as the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border is due to open on Sunday in the southernmost city of Rafah. All of Gaza’s border crossings — aside from those with Israel — have remained closed for most of the war. Palestinians view the Rafah crossing as a critical route for tens of thousands who require medical treatment abroad, particularly after much of Gaza’s healthcare system was destroyed, according to AP.

The limited reopening of Rafah is set to coincide with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire entering its second phase under a U.S.-brokered plan. Negotiations remain fraught, with unresolved issues including the demilitarisation of Gaza after nearly two decades of Hamas rule and the establishment of a new authority to oversee post-war reconstruction.

Egypt, one of the ceasefire mediators, condemned the Israeli strikes in a statement, calling them “a direct threat to the political course” of the truce. Qatar, another mediator, described the strikes as a “dangerous escalation” and warned that continuing them poses a “direct threat” to the political process, AP reported.

Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp in Khan Younis sparked a fire that killed seven people, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

Atallah Abu Hadaiyed said he had just finished praying when the explosion hit. “We came running and found my cousins lying here and there, with fire raging. We don’t know if we’re at war or at peace, or what. Where is the truce? Where is the ceasefire they talked about?” he said, as residents surveyed the damage, including a blood-stained mattress.

In Gaza City, Shifa Hospital said an airstrike on an apartment building killed three children, their aunt and grandmother.

“The three girls are gone, may God have mercy on them. They were asleep, we found them in the street,” said a relative, Samir Al-Atbash, who added that the family were civilians with no links to Hamas. Names were written on body bags lined up against a wall.

Shifa Hospital said the strike on the police station killed at least 14 people, including four policewomen, civilians and detainees held at the site.

Hamas described Saturday’s attacks as “a renewed flagrant violation” of the ceasefire and urged the United States and other mediators to pressure Israel to halt the strikes.

“All available indicators suggest that we are dealing with a ‘Board of War,’ not a ‘Board of Peace,’” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on X, questioning the legitimacy of a Trump administration-backed international body proposed to govern Gaza.

Israel’s military said its operations since October have been responses to ceasefire breaches. It said Saturday’s strikes followed what it described as two separate violations a day earlier, in which Israeli forces killed three militants who emerged from a tunnel in an Israeli-controlled area of Rafah and four others who approached troops near the dividing line.

The death toll reported on Saturday was several times higher than the daily average since the ceasefire began. As of Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 520 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire since the truce took effect. While the ministry operates under the Hamas-led government, its casualty figures are generally regarded as reliable by the United Nations and independent experts, according to AP.

The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages being taken. Israeli authorities said the remains of the final hostage held in Gaza were recovered earlier this week.

(With inputs from AP)