Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza after ceasefire announced | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
An Israeli attack on a house in Gaza City killed 18 people as Palestinians nervously await the start of a truce on Sunday.
Israeli forces have killed at least 82 people in Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, including at least 30 in Gaza City in the hours since Hamas and Israel announced they had reached ceasefire agreement.
At least 18 people were killed in an attack on a house near the building of the engineers’ union in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent reported.
The Palestinian Civil Defense also said it recovered the bodies of 12 people from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
In the central Gaza Strip, five people were killed in an attack by an Israeli drone that targeted a gathering of people in the Karaj area of the Bureij camp.
The death toll, which had been counted since dawn on Wednesday, continued to rise as Palestinians returned to their tents after briefly celebrating news of a cease-fire agreement reached by Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night.
“People turned this entire space into a stage for a couple of hours celebrationsomething we are not used to seeing here because this area used to be a stage for funerals for war victims and a space filled with agony and sorrow,” said Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. .
But the ceasefire doesn’t start until Sunday, and people in Gaza fear it will get worse before the Israeli bombardment ends, Mahmoud said.
“We are expecting a wave of drone attacks and heavy artillery, and that’s the reason people stopped celebrating after two hours,” he said.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Gaza City, said the intense Israeli attacks there had “quenched” the joy people felt after the ceasefire was first announced.
“Just a few hours ago, there was an atmosphere of joy and relief among the residents when a ceasefire was announced from Doha, stating that it would come into effect in the coming days,” al-Sharif said.
“However, immediately after the announcement, Israeli warplanes extinguished that joy for the people – attacking hospitals, shelters and homes with direct airstrikes.”
Both Israel and Hamas have publicly confirmed that a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal has been reached, although Israel has said some final details still need to be agreed before the deal can be sealed.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with Israel’s negotiating team in Doha at dawn Thursday, who briefed him on disagreements with Hamas over which Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for prisoners during the first phase of the deal.
As of January 1, 2025, there are at least 10,221 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, excluding an unknown number of Palestinians taken from Gaza and detained by the military, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which was destroyed by Israeli forces.
Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political office, said earlier that the ceasefire agreement met all the Palestinian group’s conditions, including the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes and a permanent end to the war in the enclave.
The exact time when the ceasefire should start on Sunday is not yet known, although the entire process will be carried out in three phases.
