At least 30 people were killed, while dozens of others were injured in Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory, AFP quoted Gaza’s civil defence agency as saying on Wednesday.
The toll came hours after
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out air strikes on Tuesday despite an ongoing ceasefire, after the Israeli military accused Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce.
“At least 30 killed and dozens of wounded as a result of the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, and our crews are still working to recover the dead and wounded from under the rubble,” Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the agency, was quoted as saying.
However, US Vice President JD Vance, part of a parade of Trump administration officials who visited Israel last week, said the “ceasefire was holding” despite Tuesday’s “skirmishes”.
“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an (Israeli) soldier. We expect the Israelis to respond, but I think the President’s peace is going to hold despite that,” the US Vice President said.
On Tuesday, Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza after Israel accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, the latest test of a fragile deal brokered earlier this month by US President Donald Trump.
Reuters quoted local health authorities as saying that the strikes killed at least 26 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis.
The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations.
NETANYAHU ACCUSES HAMAS OF VIOLATING CEASEFIRE
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by turning over some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.
Netanyahu said the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Tzarfati’s remains had already been partially retrieved by Israeli troops during the war.
Hamas initially said in response to this that it would hand over to Israel on Tuesday the body of a missing hostage found in a tunnel in Gaza.
However, the group’s armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said later it would postpone the planned handover, citing what it said were Israel’s violations of the ceasefire.
Late on Tuesday, Al-Qassam issued a statement saying it had recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations in Gaza.
Hamas said Netanyahu was looking for excuses to back away from Israel’s obligations.
Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.
ALSO READ | How Hamas Damaged The Palestinian Cause: Tragic Betrayal Of A Just Struggle
