DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- Deadly airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday cast more doubt on whether new U.S. efforts can advance a tenuous ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Just two days after U.S. negotiators reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks in the Gaza Strip, at least 10 people were killed Wednesday in two strikes, according to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Israeli troops also crossed the ceasefire line in southern Gaza and detained a Hamas police colonel at dawn Wednesday, two witnesses and a Hamas official said.
Israel’s military said one of the strikes on Wednesday, in the area of Nuseirat refugee camp, struck a Hamas commander who had participated in the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 abducted. A second strike in the Tuffah area of Gaza City struck another Hamas commander planning to carry out attacks against Israeli troops, the military said.
Israel’s military said a strike the day before targeted a meeting of four Hamas commanders and additional militants.
The commanders killed included Muhammad Hamdi Ahmad Al-Masri, Muhammad Attar and Muhammad Fathi Hussein Nasser, all accused of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli troops, and Samed Samir Harb Abu Habal, who infiltrated Israeli territory during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, according to a statement from Israel’s military.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the Wednesday Gaza City strike, which hit a police station, killed eight police officers and a 13-year-old girl. Two officers were women, it said. One person was killed in Nuseirat. On Tuesday evening, an Israeli strike on a busy seaside cafe killed seven Palestinians, including a child, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Jared Kushner, a U.S. negotiator and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, held a marathon meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, in which he asked Israel’s leader to draw down attacks on Gaza, a person familiar with the meeting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.
Also on Wednesday, Israel’s military said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct during the war in Gaza and would launch criminal investigations into the killings of a five-year-old girl and her family, as well as of 15 Palestinian paramedics.
At least 17 killed in Israeli strikes
The deadly strikes in Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday exacted more casualties even as a ceasefire that’s been in place since October has significantly diminished the fighting in the tiny enclave where more than two million Palestinians live. Since the ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,273 people, according to health officials in Gaza.
The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by UN agencies and international organizations. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.
In the early hours of Wednesday, at least 15 Israeli troops entered the Muwasi coastal area, west of the city of Khan Younis, two residents and a Hamas official said.
Accompanied by armed men, the troops stormed the tent of Sabri Abdel-All, a colonel for the Hamas-led Blue Police in Khan Younis. They also detained another resident identified as Nashat Ezzat Zaarab, they said.
The two residents and the Hamas official spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.
Latest ceasefire negotiation offer few concrete commitments
On the diplomatic front, the ceasefire also appears stalled. Trump’s initial ceasefire plan laid out a broad vision for ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza and rebuilding the territory, much of which was reduced to rubble during the war.
But since last fall, major sticking points have emerged on the conditions of Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal -- and which should come first.
Earlier this month, Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to disarm. But Hamas said it would begin to disarm if Israel halts strikes and withdraws, adding that laying down its heavy weapons would come later and be contingent on the creation of a Palestinian state -- something Israel’s government rejects.
Netanyahu also pushed back on the deal, saying Israel won’t withdraw from its current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.
After Wednesday’s strikes, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem lashed out at the Board of Peace -- the body Trump established to oversee the ceasefire -- saying it has provided a “cover” for Israel to escalate its attacks in Gaza instead of pressuring it to abide by the ceasefire agreement.
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Associated Press journalists Julia Frankel and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Jerusalem; Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.
The Associated Press
