Israel continues deadly Gaza truce breaches as US seeks to strengthen deal

Israel has continued its air strikes and shootings in Gaza, raising fears over the future of its fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas, as United States envoys ramp up diplomacy to get the deal back on track.

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said that four people were killed in two separate attacks, both times “by Israeli gunfire as they were returning to check on their homes” in the al-Shaaf area, east of Tuffah neighbourhood, in eastern Gaza City.

Israel’s military claimed it had fired at militants who crossed the so-called yellow line of demarcation and had approached troops in the Shujayea neighbourhood, which is adjacent to Tuffah, and “posed a threat” to Israeli soldiers.

The yellow line, set out in a map shared by US President Donald Trump on October 4, is the boundary behind which Israeli troops pulled back and remain stationed under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Gaza City residents reported confusion over the line’s location because of a lack of a visible boundary. “The whole area is in ruins. We saw the maps but we can’t tell where those lines are,” said Samir, 50, who lives in Tuffah in the city’s east.

Several outbreaks of violence have taken place since a fragile US-brokered ceasefire began on October 10, with at least 97 Palestinians killed in total, according to Gaza officials.

‘Blatant breaches’

Amid the rising death toll, Israel and Hamas have pointed the finger at one another for breaking the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10.

Israeli air attacks on Sunday killed 42 people, including children, according to local health officials. Israel said the strikes were in retaliation for a truce violation by Hamas fighters, who it claimed shot and killed two Israeli soldiers in Rafah.

Hamas denied involvement in the event, saying it has no contact with any of its remaining units in Israeli-controlled parts of Rafah and “is not responsible for any incidents” there. One official accused Israel of fabricating “pretexts” to resume the war.

The group, which has released 20 living Israeli captives, said it was working to complete the handover of the remaining bodies of captives in Gaza, citing “major challenges because of the extensive destruction” of the enclave.

The Red Cross received the body of a 13th deceased captive from Hamas on Monday and transferred it to the Israeli military, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Sunday, Israel threatened to halt shipments of humanitarian aid into Gaza, though it later said it had resumed enforcing the ceasefire.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the delivery of aid into the territory had resumed, though he did not say how much.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said on Monday that Israel was still blocking the entry of aid into Gaza. “Several military checkpoints are blocking their entry, and these trucks are packed with various humanitarian supplies,” he said.

Abu Azzoum said the Israeli army had struck the eastern parts of Khan Younis on Monday, triggering fears among Palestinians that the ceasefire would not hold.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said, “The fragile ceasefire in #Gaza must be upheld”, in a statement on X, and called for investigations into the “blatant breaches” of international humanitarian law.

Salvage efforts

Amid the continued violence, two of Trump’s envoys travelled to Israel on Monday to shore up the ceasefire deal.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Netanyahu, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.

US Vice President JD Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance, are scheduled to visit Israel on Tuesday and meet with Netanyahu.

The ceasefire’s next stage is expected to focus on disarming Hamas, Israeli withdrawal from additional areas it controls in Gaza, and the future governance of the devastated territory under an internationally backed “board of peace”.

Egypt hosted talks in Cairo on Monday with senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya over ways to follow up on implementing the ceasefire, Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas and other allied factions reject any foreign administration of Gaza, as envisaged in the Trump plan, and have so far resisted calls to lay down arms, which may complicate the implementation of the deal.

Asked about maintaining the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Trump appeared to blame Hamas for the ceasefire breaches, saying that it was facing “some rebellion” in its ranks, which the leaders needed to straighten out.

“They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’ll be eradicated,” he said. But he insisted that such actions would not involve US troops on the ground.

Since the ceasefire started, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets in Gaza, clashing with other armed groups and killing alleged gangsters.

Trump had last week said that Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad; very, very bad gangs”.

“And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK,” he said.