The Israeli army has attacked Gaza amid ongoing tensions between Israel and Hamas over the ceasefire. Reuters has given this information quoting Israeli media. According to Israeli media, the attack came at a time when the US has accused the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas of planning attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has rejected these allegations as Israeli propaganda. The Israeli army has also not commented on the attack in Gaza.
According to Palestinian reports, Israeli forces were attacked near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday morning, due to which Israeli forces responded to the airstrike. Israeli naval ships also fired heavily towards the coast. The attack came a week after the ceasefire went into effect and a week after Israeli forces withdrew from about half of the Gaza Strip. It has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a stern warning on Saturday that the fighting in Gaza will not stop until Hamas is completely disarmed and the Palestinian territories are demilitarized. The statement came after Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, handed over the bodies of two more hostages on Saturday night as part of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu announced the same day that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain closed until further notice. He said its reopening would depend on Hamas returning the bodies of the dead hostages. The announcement came hours after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said the Rafah crossing, a key entry point for Gazans, would reopen on Monday.
Meanwhile, the US State Department on Saturday informed all parties to the Gaza peace agreement that Hamas was planning attacks against Palestinians, which would constitute a serious violation of the ceasefire. A statement released by the department said the planned attacks would be a direct violation of the agreement and undermine progress made by the mediation.
