Israeli Air Strikes Kill 32 in Gaza Amid Fragile Ceasefire

Israeli air strikes killed at least 32 people, including women and children, across Gaza on Saturday, according to the territory’s civil defence agency, as Israel said the attacks were carried out in response to a Hamas ceasefire violation.

The violence occurred despite a US-brokered truce entering its second phase earlier this month, with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching the agreement. The latest escalation came a day before Israel announced it would reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday for the “limited movement of people”.

“The death toll since dawn has risen to 32, most of them children and women,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, adding that residential buildings, tents, shelters and a police station were among the targets.

In Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood, an apartment unit was completely destroyed. Relatives said three young girls were killed while sleeping. Another strike hit a police station in the Sheikh Radwan area, where Gaza’s general police directorate reported seven deaths, including female officers.

Israeli strikes also hit a shelter in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, an area housing tens of thousands of displaced people in tents and makeshift shelters. Casualty figures from that attack were not immediately available.

Israel’s military said the air strikes were retaliation for an incident on Friday in which Palestinian fighters emerged from a tunnel in Rafah, claiming it violated the ceasefire. It said several commanders and fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad were targeted. Hamas rejected the claim, calling the strikes a serious breach of the truce.

Gaza authorities said Israeli attacks have killed at least 509 people since the ceasefire took effect, while Israel said four of its soldiers have been killed during the same period in suspected militant attacks.

Egypt and Qatar, key mediators in the ceasefire, condemned what they described as violations of the truce and urged restraint ahead of the Rafah crossing reopening, warning that continued violence could undermine efforts to stabilise the situation.

The war began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,221 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has devastated large parts of Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry says at least 71,769 people have been killed since the conflict began, figures regarded as credible by the United Nations.