Gaza incidents highlight fragility of ceasefire

17/3/2025 5:55

Israeli military strikes

have killed at least 15 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the

past 24 hours, the enclave's health ministry said on Sunday, as

Arab and U.S. mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire

between Israel and Hamas.



Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed

by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted

large-scale fighting in Gaza.



Israel's military has said its forces have intervened to

thwart threats by "terrorists" approaching its troops or

planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect.



Gaza's health ministry said most of the latest deaths were

on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians

including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the

northern Gaza Strip.



The Israeli military said six men that it had identified as

members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad

militant group had been killed in the strike. It said some of

the militants had operated "under the cover of journalists".



Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government

media office, said the military's statement about the incident

included the names of people who were not present.



It was based on inaccurate social media reports "without

even bothering to verify the facts", Marouf said.



At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate

Israeli strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.



An Israeli drone had fired a missile at a group of

Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza on

Sunday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others,

the medics said. Several others were hurt when an Israeli drone

fired a missile towards a group of people in Rafah, they added.



The Israeli military said it was not familiar with the

reported drone strikes.



Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian

near the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, medics said. The

Israeli military said in a statement it struck a "terrorist"

attempting to plant a bomb on the ground.







CEASEFIRE TALKS



Persistent bloodshed in Gaza underscores the fragility of

the three-stage ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt and

the United States, which have stepped in to hammer out a deal

between Israel and Hamas over how to proceed.



Israel wants to extend the ceasefire's first phase, a

proposal backed by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will

resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due

to begin on March 2.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on

Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue

talks based on the mediators' response to a U.S. proposal for

the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.



Hamas on Friday said it had agreed to release

American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the

hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on

implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused

Hamas of waging "psychological warfare" on the families of

hostages.



An Israeli delegation was in Egypt discussing a possible

deal with senior Egyptian officials that would release more

hostages, Netanyahu's office said on Sunday.



The war began when Hamas led a cross-border raid into

southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and

capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.



Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than

48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials,

displaced most of the population and reduced much of the

territory to rubble.