KEY POINTS
- Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to discuss Israel’s continued violations of Gaza ceasefire.
- Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed at least 24 Palestinians and wounded 87 others.
- Hamas accused Israel of breaching the truce and moving forces west of the agreed yellow line.
- Netanyahu said Israel would keep striking “on several fronts” and denied needing outside approval for military action.
- Gaza authorities said Israel has violated the ceasefire 497 times in 44 days.
CAIRO/GAZA CITY: A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to meet Gaza war mediators, an Egyptian security source and a Hamas official said on Sunday, as both Israel and the Palestinian group traded accusations of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.
A Hamas official, cited by Al Jazeera, said the talks would focus on Israel’s “continued violation of the ceasefire agreement”. Egypt, Qatar and the United States brokered the truce, which came into effect on October 10.
Israeli strikes kill 24 Palestinians
Israeli air strikes across Gaza on Saturday killed at least 24 Palestinians, including children, and wounded 87 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.
Witnesses said the first strike targeted a car in northern Gaza City. Further strikes hit central Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp.
A drone strike in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood killed at least 11 people and injured 20 others, according to al-Shifa Hospital’s managing director, Rami Mhanna.
In Deir el-Balah, three people, including a woman, were killed when a house was hit. A witness described a “powerful explosion”.
Hamas accused Israel of breaching the truce “under fabricated pretexts” and urged the mediators — the US, Egypt and Qatar — to intervene.
The Palestinian group said Israeli forces had moved west of the designated yellow line, altering the boundary set under the agreement.
Netanyahu vows to keep striking Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would do “everything necessary” to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping in Lebanon and Hamas from doing so in Gaza.
“We are continuing to strike on several fronts,” he told a cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu claimed Hamas had made “several attempts” to infiltrate beyond the yellow line. He said Israeli forces had “thwarted” these attempts and “retaliated”.
He rejected suggestions that Israel required external approval before taking action, calling such reports an “absolute lie”.
Pakistan condemns Israeli strikes
Pakistan condemned the Israeli air strikes, saying the attacks had killed several Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the actions violated international law, UN resolutions and the recently concluded peace agreement reached at Sharm el-Sheikh.
It said the strikes also undermined ongoing international efforts to secure lasting peace.
Israel violates truce 497 times
The Gaza Government Media Office said Israel had violated the US-brokered ceasefire at least 497 times in 44 days, killing hundreds of Palestinians since 10 October.
It said 342 civilians had been killed, most of them children, women and the elderly. The office called the violations “serious and systematic”, describing them as a “flagrant breach of international humanitarian law”.
It said 27 violations occurred on Saturday alone, resulting in 24 deaths and 87 injuries.
The office accused Israel of restricting the entry of humanitarian aid and medical supplies into Gaza, despite obligations under the ceasefire deal.
Hamas rejects claims of abandoning ceasefire
Israel said a Hamas fighter had attacked Israeli soldiers inside Gaza’s yellow-line zone. Netanyahu’s office said Israeli forces “eliminated five senior Hamas fighters” in response.
Hamas demanded Israel disclose the identity of the attacker. Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas political bureau member, accused Israel of “fabricating pretexts to evade the agreement and return to a war of extermination”.
He said reports that Hamas had abandoned the ceasefire were false.
Israel had continued air strikes across the territory, leaving Palestinians with “a shattered sense of safety”.
Many Palestinians believed the Gaza agreement had been treated as a “tactical withdrawal rather than a genuine binding commitment”.
Local authorities in northern Gaza said dozens of families remained besieged as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the enclave in violation of the agreement.
The yellow line refers to the unmarked boundary where Israeli forces repositioned when the ceasefire began. It allows Israel to maintain control over more than half of Gaza and fire on Palestinians approaching the line.
Hamas said Israel had advanced westwards beyond the boundary, altering the agreed demarcation.
Identifying returned bodies
A spokesperson for the Gaza Forensic Evidence Department told Al Jazeera that the organisation lacked the laboratories and equipment needed to identify bodies returned by Israel under the truce deal.
Many bodies showed signs of “torture, mutilation and execution”, the spokesperson said.
They called for international assistance, noting that 330 bodies had been returned and only 90 had been identified so far.
