Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza for a second consecutive day, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, even as US President Donald Trump announced what he described as a breakthrough in efforts to carry out last year’s ceasefire agreement.
Israeli warplanes began striking at dawn, hitting Gaza city in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and the southern area of Khan Younis. Palestinian health officials said the attacks produced the territory’s highest daily death toll in weeks.
Mr Trump’s statement on Thursday that Palestinian Hamas militants and other armed groups had agreed to disarm had fueled hopes that negotiations to end the conflict might be entering a decisive phase.
But Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said the government would give Hamas an opportunity to surrender its weapons while expressing “very sceptical” views about whether the group would do so.
“In the deal we signed with the United States, our stance is that Hamas must be dismantled. This is the first thing that must happen,” he added.
A spokesperson for Mr Netanyahu’s office told Reuters that Israel had raised concerns with Washington over the proposed disarmament plan.
“The most important concern for Israel is that nothing can happen before Hamas completely and truly disarms …,” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said.
Attacks hit Gaza tents, apartment and house, medics say
In Deir al-Balah, strikes killed at least four people, according to Palestinian health officials. Another attack near Khan Younis, in the Mawasi area, wounded five people and set several tents on fire, the civil emergency service said.
Residents are pictured near buildings caused by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza city over the weekend
Palestinian officials said a couple and their nine-year-old son died when a house in Mawasi was struck. In Gaza city, another couple and their child were killed in an attack on an apartment, medics said. Two additional people died when a tent near the office of the Egyptian representative mission was hit.
Medics said two more people were killed in Gaza city’s eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood.
One person was killed near Jabalia in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military said an apartment strike in Deiral-Balah was aimed at two commanders from Hamas’s elite “Nukhba” force.
The military said the attacks in Gaza city and Jabalia also targeted “military operatives”, adding that it was still assessing the results.
In a later strike in Gaza city, medics said an Israeli airstrike hit a car near Saraya Square, killing at least three Palestinians.
Mr Trump’s Board of Peace, the US-led body responsible for overseeing the ceasefire, released a 15-point roadmap on Friday outlining the final stages required to implement the agreement.
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Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza, said the strikes took place as the board and mediators were attempting to persuade Palestinian factions to accept the roadmap for carrying out Mr Trump’s plan.
In a post on X, he said he was working with the parties, mediators and regional partners to “de-escalate and create the space for the full implementation of the President’s plan”.
“Achieving a lasting peace is hard but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts,” Mr Mladenov said.
At least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire was reached in October, Gaza health authorities said. Hamas does not publish figures for its military fatalities.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same period, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas says it has shown flexibility
Hamas has said Israel must halt its attacks in Gaza and withdraw its troops under other key provisions of the ceasefire agreement before the group will agree to transfer its weapons to a newly designated Palestinian body responsible for governing Gaza.
A senior Hamas official said the group had shown “considerable flexibility”, while accusing Israel of seeking to establish a de facto reality by escalating its bombardment.
“This escalation, coinciding with progress on the political track, clearly demonstrates that the occupation government is seeking to undermine efforts aimed at ending the war and to impose facts on the ground by force,” Basem Naim said in a statement.
Mohammed Dahlan, a former senior Fatah official based in the United Arab Emirates, said in a Facebook post that Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser involved in the US initiative, had told him he was working with Israel to stop the attacks on Gaza.
Mr Dahlan said communication with the US was continuing to secure full implementation of the agreement. He added that its success now rested on Israel bringing its daily attacks on Gaza to an end.
Reuters has reached out to the US State Department for comment on Dahlan’s remarks. Israel had not immediately issued a response.
