Ceasefire Imperiled as Israel Kills Scores of Palestinians in Gaza

The shaky Gaza ceasefire further frayed on Sunday as Israel launched at least 20 airstrikes and blocked all aid delivery in the obliterated Palestinian exclave, while Hamas rejected US allegations that it is preparing to violate the tenuous truce.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it has “now begun a wave of strikes” in southern Gaza “following a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today” by Hamas, whose fighters are accused of killing two Israeli occupation troops and wounding three others in Rafah on Sunday morning.

Gaza officials said that at least 51 Palestinians, including numerous children, were killed across the strip on Sunday. Attacks include but are not limited to a double-tap drone and missile strike on a café west of Deir al-Balah that killed five people, all of them reportedly civilians; an airstrike on a the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed four civilians; an airstrike on the Sardi school that killed four displaced civilians; artillery shelling that killed six civilians on al-Zawaida Beach; and the bombing of a building housing journalists in al-Zawaida that killed two civilians.

The US State Department on Saturday accused Hamas of planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza “in grave violation of the ceasefire.” Hamas has been battling Israeli-backed criminal gangs that oppose its longtime rule of Gaza.

In a statement Sunday, Hamas slammed the US allegations as lies that “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organized aggression” against Palestinians.

Hamas urged the US to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and to focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the nine-day ceasefire at least 48 times, including by bombing residential areas and killing civilians approaching the so-called “yellow line” beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the truce.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.

On Friday, Israeli forces massacred 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return by bus to their home in Gaza City.

In response to what it said were Hamas ceasefire violations, Israel on Sunday closed off crossing points into Gaza, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the strip, where famine conditions persist due to the siege imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who are both fugitives from the International Criminal Court—at the start of the genocidal war two years ago.

Amjad Al-Shawwa, who heads the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Gaza, warned Sunday that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, especially pregnant women and children, are suffering severe malnutrition. At least hundreds of Gazans have died of malnutrition and related causes.

A senior Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity toldThe Guardian that “round-the-clock” talks were under way to salvage the ceasefire.

Responding to the renewed Israeli bombing, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: “Since the start of the ceasefire, the Netanyahu regime has been itching to fully restart the genocide in Gaza.”

:The cruel and unnecessary mass bombing of civilians across Gaza constitutes a blatant violation of President [Donald] Trump’s ceasefire agreement and a resumption of the genocide,“ CAIR added. ”President Trump must rein in the Israeli occupation forces and stop sending American weapons and American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s war machine.“