Israel says troops fire on Gaza gunmen as truce enters 5th day, deadly West Bank operation continues

Tel Aviv – Testing the limits of the fragile cease-fire In its fifth day, Israel’s military said on Thursday that forces had opened fire in the south Gauze tape On masked, armed suspects who posed a threat to their safety. The Israel Defense Forces, in a statement, reported incidents east of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and in the area of ​​the Kerem Shalom border crossing, through which aid trucks have been delivering more food, water and medical supplies since the ceasefire took effect.

The IDF said it had killed one militant with the Islamic Jihad group and that while Israel remained “determined to fully maintain the conditions [ceasefire] The agreement to return the hostages was also “prepared for any scenario and will continue to take all necessary actions to prevent any immediate threat to IDF soldiers.”

There was no immediate response to the incident from Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

A few hours before the IDF confirmed the operation in southern Gaza, newly famous in the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio He called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told the Israeli leader that “maintaining steadfast United States support for Israel is a top priority for President Trump,” according to call reading.

Rubio made a series of calls to foreign ministers around the world, but Netanyahu was the first head of state he spoke to, according to a tally provided by the State Department. The two men also discussed freeing the remaining 94 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, seven of whom are Israeli-Americans, while addressing threats from Iran, though the State Department did not offer any specifics.

Gaza’s Hamas Health Ministry has reported no new deaths since the ceasefire, but the official toll continues to mount as rescue and recovery teams, and ordinary citizens, find more bodies and, in some cases, piles of bones, in the rubble of the devastated Palestinian enclaves.

The ministry said its tally as of Thursday showed more than 47,200 people had been killed during the war that sparked Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 251. In Gaza, the remains of more of the 160 people recovered since the ceasefire began on Sunday, the ministry said.

Thousands more bodies are still believed to be under the collapsed buildings in the enclave, which was home to about 2.3 million people before the war. The media office of Gaza’s Hamas administration said on Thursday that around 14,000 people remained missing.

Faster recovery efforts, along with aid distribution, have been hampered by the Strip’s lack of functioning heavy equipment and its decimated infrastructure, according to rescue workers and aid agencies.

As of Wednesday, the UN said 808 trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including food, fuel and medical supplies, had entered the lane since the ceasefire took effect. But the hostage release agreement negotiated by the US, Qatar and Egypt called for 600 trucks to enter the territory every day.

Hamas said it would release four more hostages – Israeli women – on Saturday. The initial exchange on Sunday was visible Three prisoners were released In exchange for about 90 Palestinian prisoners, who were released from an Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank. Israel is expected to release another 200 Palestinian detainees this weekend.

In the meantime, a “Great Exchange” military offensive Launched by the IDF in the West Bank earlier this week, it continued overnight, centered in and around the sprawling Jenin refugee camp in the northern Palestinian territory.

The IDF says it has killed two men in an “Iron Wall” operation linked to the Islamic Jihad group called Hamas, claiming the men shot and killed three Israelis in a bus attack two weeks ago in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which is not controlled by Hamas like Gaza, said on Wednesday that 10 Palestinians were killed amid a new IDF operation.

The “Iron Wall” was the IDF’s main show of force in Jenin, an area of ​​the West Bank considered by Israel to be a stronghold of Iranian-backed militant groups. With the Gaza ceasefire taking effect, the IDF has shifted its focus – and firepower – to the West Bank.

One of President Trump’s many initial moves as he began his second term this week was to roll back Biden-era sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers deemed a security threat in the West Bank.

Domestically, for Prime Minister Netanyahu, the West Bank offensive may be aimed at least in part at positioning a segment of his support base—including Far right members of their own cabinet – who were furious about the truce with Hamas.

Israel’s former national security minister, right-wing nationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned in protest at the deal, saying it was pandering to terror.

If the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right cabinet member, were to resign, then Netanyahu’s fragile coalition government would fall apart. Early national elections should then be called in the country, which could affect Netanyahu’s long grip on political power.