CAIRO(National Times)- Israeli air strikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement.
From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Yunis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.
Trump’s assertion on Thursday that Palestinian Hamas and other groups had agreed to disarm had raised hopes of a turning point in the conflict.
On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio the government would give Hamas the opportunity to disarm but said he was “very sceptical” that would happen.
Minister Eli Cohen denies any deal to halt attacks
Cohen added that there had been no deal to halt attacks on Gaza and that he saw a need for Israel which already controls 70 per cent of the enclave to take full control of it if Hamas did not disarm.
“In the deal we signed with the United States, our stance is that Hamas must be dismantled. This is the first thing that must happen,” he added.
Attacks hit tents
Israeli strikes on Deir al-Balah killed at least four people, Palestinian health officials said, and a separate attack wounded five people and set some tents ablaze in Mawasi near Khan Yunis, according to the civil emergency service.
A couple and their 9-year-old son were also killed in a strike on a house in Mawasi, Palestinian officials said.
Another couple was killed with their child in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City, where two more people died in a strike on a tent near the office of the Egyptian representative mission, medics said. Another person was killed near Jabalia in northern Gaza, they added.
At least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to Gaza health authorities. They do not say how many combatants may be among the dead. Hamas does not disclose figures on its war dead.
Trump’s Board of Peace, the US-led body overseeing the ceasefire, published on Friday a 15-point roadmap setting out the final steps for implementing the agreement.
Hamas has said Israel must stop its attacks in Gaza and pull its troops back, in accordance with other key terms of the ceasefire deal, before it will agree to hand over weapons to a new Palestinian body named to run Gaza.
