Israel Resumes Strikes on Gaza After Hamas Is Accused of Violating the Truce

According to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency and local hospitals, at least 33 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday. Israel said the attacks were a response to a violation of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the United States.

Israel’s defense minister accused Hamas of carrying out an attack in southern Gaza that killed an Israeli soldier, as well as of breaching the arrangements concerning the return of the bodies of deceased hostages. Hamas officials denied involvement in the assault and insisted they were still honoring the truce. U.S. President Donald Trump, commenting on the incident, said that “nothing will threaten the cease-fire,” but added that Israel must “respond” if its troops come under attack.

Witnesses and rescue workers said the strikes hit residential homes, schools, and apartment buildings in Gaza City and Beit Lahia in the north, as well as the Bureij and Nuseirat camps in the central region and Khan Younis in the south. In Gaza City, witnesses described “columns of fire and smoke” rising into the sky as explosions shook residential neighborhoods. At least 14 people were killed, including three women and a man whose bodies were pulled from the rubble of the al-Banna family home in the southern Sabra district.

In the densely populated Bureij refugee camp, five members of the Abu Sharar family were killed when a missile struck their home in Block 7, according to officials. Another five people were killed in Khan Younis, where Israeli aircraft hit a car on a road northwest of the city. A Civil Defense spokesperson said rescuers were working “under extremely difficult conditions” and that the death toll would likely rise, as several people remained missing under the rubble.

On Tuesday evening, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had ordered “powerful strikes” on the Gaza Strip, without providing further details. Later, the defense minister said Hamas had “crossed a red line” by attacking Israeli troops. “Hamas will pay dearly for assaulting our soldiers and for violating the agreement on the return of the bodies of the dead hostages,” he warned.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the attack took place “east of the Yellow Line,” the boundary separating the area of Gaza under Israeli control according to the terms of the cease-fire. On Wednesday morning, the army announced the death of reservist Master Sergeant Yonah Efraim Feldbaum. According to Israeli media reports, he was part of an engineering unit operating in the southern city of Rafah when a group of militants emerged from an underground tunnel and opened fire on the soldiers, including with rocket-propelled grenades.