Israel says it struck Gaza after ceasefire ‘violation’

Israel’s military said Friday it had struck the Gaza Strip the previous day in response to a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire there.

The announcement of Thursday’s attacks came after exchanges of fire in the south of the Palestinian territory.

As the second phase of the fragile US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas began, each side accused the other of failing to abide by the agreement that took effect on October 10.

Both the Gaza civil defense agency and Hamas reported on Thursday that strikes on the territory killed at least seven people.

The family of a Hamas armed wing commander announced his death in a strike on a house in Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory.

The Israeli military, in a statement on Friday, said it had hit “several terrorists, including commanders from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations across the Gaza Strip” on Thursday.

The statement said Israel had acted in response to “the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier this week in western Rafah, in which armed terrorists fired at IDF troops” on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had identified “six armed terrorists” in western Rafah near its soldiers, and said tanks opened fire and air strikes were launched.

It later announced it had killed six fighters.

On Friday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the group believed Israel had committed a “new violation” of the ceasefire by carrying out strikes in Gaza.

A total of 463 Palestinians have been killed since October 10, according to the health ministry of Gaza’s government.

The Israeli army has reported three soldiers killed.

The war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

After two years of war, US President Donald Trump announced a long-awaited peace plan negotiated by mediating countries.

The Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), a US initiative to support the stabilization of post-war Gaza, is supposed to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire.