Israeli fire kills four Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

CAIRO: An Israeli aerial firing killed four Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health authorities ​said, in the latest violence to overshadow a fragile ceasefire amid ‌a new push by mediators to bolster the agreement.

Medics said the airstrike targeted a group of people in Jaffa Street, near the Darraj neighbourhood in Gaza City, killing ​four people and wounding others.

The Israeli military said forces in ​the northern Gaza Strip had struck and killed members of a ⁠Palestinian militant cell who were operating near the troops, posing an ​immediate threat to them.

Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have traded blame for ​violations of the ceasefire agreed last October, which halted two years of full-blown war.

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since the ​ceasefire began. Israel says four soldiers have been killed by militants in ​Gaza over the same period.

A Hamas delegation met Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in ‌Cairo ⁠last week to give its initial response to a disarmament proposal presented to the group last month, two Egyptian sources and a Palestinian official said.

The group has told mediators it will not discuss giving up arms without guarantees ​that Israel will ​fully quit Gaza ⁠as laid out in a disarmament plan from U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, three sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Hamas’ disarmament ​is a sticking point in talks to implement Trump’s ​plan for ⁠the Palestinian enclave and cement the ceasefire.
Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s ensuing two-year campaign killed more ⁠than ​72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to ​Gazan health authorities, and has spread famine, demolished most buildings, and displaced most of the ​territory’s population, in many cases numerous times.