GAZA CITY, Palestine: Israeli air and ground attacks across Gaza have raised fears of a collapse in the fragile US-brokered ceasefire, now entering its third week.
At least one Palestinian was killed and several others wounded in Israeli drone and artillery strikes on Saturday in central and southern Gaza, medical sources said as cited by local media.
The Israeli military said it conducted a “targeted strike” against an individual in central Gaza whom it accused of planning an attack on Israeli troops.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas remains technically in effect, but repeated Israeli breaches since it began earlier this month following nearly two years of bombardment in the Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not seek international approval for future military operations.
“We will defend ourselves by our own means and we will continue to determine our fate,” he told a meeting of government ministers in Jerusalem.
Despite repeated appeals from Washington to maintain the truce, Netanyahu said Israel “controls its security” and will act independently against threats from Gaza or Lebanon.
Escalation in Gaza and West Bank
Israeli strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as al-Maghazi and Abasan al-Jadida, on Saturday and Sunday.
Witnesses, cited by Al Jazeera, reported explosions in densely populated areas. The Israeli army said its targets included operatives from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
In a separate incident, a nine-year-old girl was killed and three others were injured when a damaged building collapsed in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood.
Israeli forces also shot and wounded a 14-year-old boy in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, according to Palestinian media.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem accused Israel of “round-the-clock” violations of the ceasefire through deadly strikes, the blockade, and restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Speaking to The New Arab, he warned the situation “does not provide the conditions necessary to maintain calm,” adding that Hamas remains in “continuous and intensive contact” with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.
Trump, Qatari Emir discuss Gaza stabilisation force
US President Donald Trump met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a refuelling stop at the Al Udeid Air Base on Saturday, thanking Doha for its “big role” in securing the Gaza ceasefire.
According to Qatar’s state news agency QNA, both leaders discussed regional security and the deployment of an international stabilisation force in Gaza.
Trump later told reporters the stabilisation force could include Qatari troops “if needed” and said the force could be deployed “pretty quickly.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been leading American diplomatic efforts in the region, also joined the discussions.
Rubio said earlier that mediation parties would meet in Qatar on Sunday to discuss the international peacekeeping plan.
Humanitarian crisis and unexploded ordnance
Despite the lull in major bombardment, humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire. The UN’s children’s agency UNICEF warned that Gaza’s education system was near collapse, with 85 percent of schools destroyed or unusable and hundreds of thousands of children out of school for a third consecutive year.
“This is the third year that there has been no school,” UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa regional director Edouard Beigbeder said in Jerusalem.
“If we don’t start a real transition for all children in February, we will enter a fourth year – and then we can talk about a lost generation.”
Nicholas Torbet, Middle East director of the UK-based Halo Trust, said clearing unexploded ordnance across Gaza would be a “mammoth task.”
He told Al Jazeera that the enclave was “essentially one giant city … every single part of it has been hit by ordnance,” adding that the problem would slow down reconstruction efforts for years to come.
Trump warns Hamas to return hostages’ bodies
President Trump also warned Hamas to begin returning the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages within 48 hours, saying regional stability depended on compliance.
Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said, “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now.”
He added that Qatar was willing to contribute troops to a post-war peacekeeping mission if required, as part of efforts to “secure lasting peace” in the Middle East.
