At least 25 Palestinians lost their lives in four Israeli air assaults on Wednesday in an area of Gaza controlled by Hamas since a tentative ceasefire was established in October, the local Health Ministry confirmed. Medics reported that 10 individuals perished in Zeitoun, a suburb of Gaza City, two in the eastern suburb of Shejaia, and the remainder in separate strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli military forces stated that they targeted Hamas facilities throughout Gaza in response to the group’s members firing at Israeli troops, breaching the ceasefire that had been in place for nearly six weeks. There were no injuries reported among Israeli forces. Hamas decried the attacks as a dangerous escalation and urged the U.S. to pressure Israel to abide by the ceasefire and cease its assaults.
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, alleged that Hamas was attempting to disrupt the ceasefire and not uphold its commitment to demilitarize. The official stated that such desperate tactics would not succeed. Kifah Mahmoud, 58, recounted the chaos and devastation caused by the airstrikes at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she and her family sought refuge.
The ceasefire’s fragility has been highlighted by repeated incidents of violence, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the U.S.-brokered truce. The recent attacks exceeded an agreed-upon imaginary boundary, according to medics, witnesses, and Palestinian media sources. The strikes targeted a building owned by Muslim religious authorities in Zeitoun and a United Nations-operated club in Khan Younis, both serving as shelters for displaced families.
Since the ceasefire on October 10, which marked a pause in the two-year conflict in Gaza, some normalcy has returned, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to go back to the war-torn region. However, violence persists, with Palestinian health authorities reporting that Israeli forces have killed 305 individuals in Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week in retaliation for an attack on Israeli troops. Israel has confirmed the deaths of three soldiers since the ceasefire commenced.
In other developments, a Gaza-based company operating water desalination plants for nearly half of the enclave’s population resumed operations after a staff member detained by Hamas-led security forces was released. The company expressed regret over the incident, attributing it to a misunderstanding, and reiterated its respect for the Hamas-led government in Gaza. Hamas officials declined to comment on the arrest.
Israel had initially halted water and electricity supplies to Gaza following a cross-border attack by Hamas in October 2023 that triggered the conflict. Although some restrictions were later eased, most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been devastated, with the pumping systems heavily reliant on electricity from generators due to fuel shortages caused by Israeli restrictions on deliveries into the region.
The company’s services are crucial in Gaza, where access to clean water is limited. It operates three major desalination plants, 80 smaller facilities, and a fleet of trucks that distribute water containers across the territory.