Israel has violated the United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire at least 497 times in 44 days, killing hundreds of Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
Some 342 civilians have been killed in the attacks, with children, women and the elderly accounting for the majority of the victims.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the continued serious and systematic violations of the ceasefire agreement by the Israeli occupation authorities,” the office said in a statement on Saturday.
“These violations constitute a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and the humanitarian protocol attached to the agreement. Among these violations, 27 occurred today, Saturday, resulting in 24 martyrs and 87 wounded,” it added.
The office also said Israel was fully responsible for the humanitarian and security repercussions from its violations.
Israel continues to heavily restrict the full and free flow of desperately needed aid and medical supplies into the devastated enclave as was mandated in the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s military launched a wave of air attacks across Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 24 Palestinians, including children, in its latest violation of a six-week-old ceasefire in the war-torn territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it launched these latest attacks after a Hamas fighter attacked Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied territory inside Gaza’s so-called yellow line.
“In response, Israel eliminated five senior Hamas [fighters],” it said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas on the slain fighters.
Dozens of Palestinian families have been “besieged” in northern Gaza, local authorities say, as the Israeli military has repositioned its forces deeper into the enclave in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Set out in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, the yellow line refers to an unmarked boundary where the Israeli military repositioned itself when the deal came into effect last month.
It has allowed Israel, which routinely fires at and kills Palestinians who approach the line, to retain control over more than half of the coastal territory.
Hamas accused Israel on Saturday of violating the truce “under fabricated pretexts” and called on mediators – the US, Egypt and Qatar – to intervene immediately.
Hamas said Israel has pushed westward beyond the yellow line, where Israeli troops are stationed in Gaza, and is changing the boundary set out as part of the deal.
“We call upon the mediators to intervene urgently and exert pressure to immediately halt these violations,” the Palestinian group said in a statement. “We also demand that the US administration fulfil its commitments and compel [Israel] to implement its obligations, and to confront its attempts to undermine the ceasefire in Gaza.”
A senior official also dismissed reports in Saudi Arabia-owned Al Arabiya that claimed it had called off the ceasefire.
“Israel is fabricating pretexts to evade the agreement and return to the war of annihilation, while it is the one violating the agreement daily and systematically,” Izzat al-Risheq, member of the Hamas political bureau, told the Quds News Network.
