The Israeli military said it had begun resuming enforcement of the Gaza ceasefire after it says it was “violated” by Hamas, signaling an end to strikes on the territory that it said were carried out in response to earlier attacks on its forces on Sunday, Reuters reported.
“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,” the military said in a statement.
It adds: “The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”
Key events
Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory killed at least 45 people on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 33, according to AFP.
The Israeli military said it had struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip, as Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the nine-day-old ceasefire brokered by Trump.
“At least 45 people were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes on various areas of the Gaza Strip,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, told AFP.
Four hospitals in Gaza confirmed the death toll to AFP, saying they had received the dead and wounded.
Earlier, Bassal detailed several of the strikes.
He said six people were killed when an Israeli strike targeted a “group of civilians” in Zuwaida town in central Gaza. Six other people, including children, were killed and 13 others injured in two separate strikes near Nuseirat in central Gaza, Bassal said.
A woman and two children were killed when a drone strike hit a tent housing displaced people near Asdaa City, north of Khan Younis. Two people, including a journalist, were killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike in the western part of Zuwaida.
In another attack, two people were killed and several injured when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the Al-Ahli Club area in Nuseirat, Bassal said. Two more people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, he added.
One individual was killed in a strike on an apartment in a building in western Gaza City, the civil defence agency said. The others succumbed later on Sunday to injuries incurred in these strikes, Bassal said.
Here is some footage of the aftermath of airstrikes Israel carried out on Sunday in Gaza in response to the ceasefire “violations” it accused Hamas of committing.
The Israeli military said it had begun resuming enforcement of the Gaza ceasefire after it says it was “violated” by Hamas, signaling an end to strikes on the territory that it said were carried out in response to earlier attacks on its forces on Sunday, Reuters reported.
“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,” the military said in a statement.
It adds: “The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”
Gaza’s civil defence agency said a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory killed at least 33 people on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 21.
The Israeli military said it had struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip, as both Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the nine-day-old ceasefire brokered by the US president, Donald Trump.
The fragile ceasefire in Gaza faced its first major test Sunday as an Israeli security official said the transfer of aid into the territory was halted “until further notice” after a Hamas ceasefire violation, and Israeli forces launched a wave of strikes, according to the Associated Press.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement on the halt in aid, a little over a week since the start of the US-proposed ceasefire aimed at ending two years of war.
Israel’s military earlier Sunday said its troops came under fire from Hamas militants in southern Gaza, and later said two soldiers were killed there.
Israel’s military said then it struck dozens of what it called Hamas targets. Health officials said at least 29 Palestinians were killed across Gaza, including children.
A senior Egyptian official involved in the ceasefire negotiations said “round-the-clock” contacts were under way to de-escalate the situation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak to reporters.
The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, as it carried out a series of strikes in the area, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire, AFP reported.
Major Yaniv Kula, 26, and staff sergeant Itay Yavetz, 21, “fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military said, the first Israeli fatalities since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
Here are the latest photos coming through the wires after Israel launched strikes in the city of Khan Younis on the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel halts supply of aid into Gaza
Israel has closed its crossing points into Gaza to aid convoys, a security official told AFP on Sunday after the government accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire agreement had committed Israel to let in 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every day.
It had halved the amount as it accused Hamas of violating the agreement by failing to return all the deceased hostages in time.
It has so far also refused to reopen the key border crossing of Rafah, the only access point that is not exclusively controlled by Israel.
A famine was declared in and around Gaza City by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in August after a previous blockade of aid deliveries.
IDF confirms it has begun ‘wave of attacks’ in southern Gaza
The Israeli military says it has launched a wave of airstrikes on southern Gaza as the fragile ceasefire comes close to total collapse.
The army said ‘massive and extensive wave of strikes’ were aimed at dozens of Hamas targets.
In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF (military) has begun a series of strikes against Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
Afternoon summary
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The fragile Gaza ceasefire edged close to total collapse on Sunday amid renewed Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including in the cities of Rafah and Beit Lahia, which killed and injured several Palestinians. Israel says the attacks were a response to Hamas gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade fire against its troops in Rafah. Hamas said that it was unaware of any incidents or clashes in Rafah, and accused Israel of a deliberate escalation. The events marked the biggest test yet of the US-brokered ceasefire.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered “firm action” across Gaza in response to the clashes, meeting defence minister Israel Katz and intelligence chiefs to instruct strikes on “terror targets”. The IDF said its forces were dismantling tunnels and “eliminating threats” in Rafah, describing today’s violence as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
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Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the territory on Sunday, including six in the north, as Israel said it may carry out further strikes after attacks on its troops in Rafah and Beit Lahia.
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Israel’s defence minister warned Hamas would “pay a heavy price” for any further ceasefire breaches, saying Israeli troops would respond “increasingly severely” if attacks continue. His comments come amid signs that parts of the Israeli government are losing patience with the truce.
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Hamas claimed to have located the body of another Israeli hostage, saying it intends to hand over the remains to Israel if “field conditions allow.” The group warned that continued airstrikes and shelling would make such transfers impossible. The IDF claim that Hamas withholding bodies of hostages violates the ceasefire agreement.
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Senior Israeli politicians have voiced growing scepticism about the ceasefire’s future. Hardline ministers Amichai Chikli and Avi Dichter said Israel cannot coexist with Hamas, while opposition leader Yair Golan urged a “decisive response,” accusing Netanyahu’s government of “failing to set new rules of the game.”
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Hamas dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”
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The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed “until further notice”, Israel has said, after the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world – and key to bringing aid into the destroyed territory – would reopen on Monday.
Hamas rejects US claim of planned Gaza ceasefire violation as “Israeli propaganda”
Hamas has dismissed a statement from the US state department that accused the group of planning an imminent attack in Gaza, calling the allegation “false” and “aligned with misleading Israeli propaganda.”
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said: “The US allegations are false and fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organised aggression against our people in Gaza.”
The comments came after the state department said late on Saturday it had obtained “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.” The US warned that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” without providing details of the alleged plan.
Hamas rejected the accusation, calling on Washington to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
The militant group said: “The facts on the ground reveal the exact opposite, as the occupation authorities are the ones who formed, armed, and funded criminal gangs that carried out killings, kidnappings, theft of aid trucks, and assaults against Palestinian civilians … confirming the occupation’s involvement in spreading chaos and disrupting security.”
Gaza civil defence says at least 11 killed in Israeli strikes
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Sunday that at least 11 people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the territory, as both sides accused each other of breaching the ceasefire.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said six people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a group of civilians in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military told AFP it was checking reports of casualties. Earlier, a military official said Israel may carry out additional strikes after its forces targeted militants in Rafah and Beit Lahia, after three separate attacks on Israeli troops.
Israeli military says further Gaza strikes possible
An Israeli military official has said that more airstrikes could be carried out in Gaza, after attacks earlier in the day in Rafah in the south and Beit Lahia in the north, according to AFP.
“There is a possibility for more strikes,” the official told reporters during an online briefing, after the army said it had targeted militants responsible for three separate attacks on Israeli forces.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel
Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency, according to the country’s judiciary, in what officials described as the latest in a series of executions after the June war between Iran and Israel, AFP reports.
The judiciary’s Mizan online news agency quoted Kazem Mousavi, the chief justice of Qom province, as saying: “The execution of this spy was carried out after confirmation by the supreme court and the rejection of his pardon request at Qom Prison.”
The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was hanged on Saturday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. Authorities said he had been in contact with Israeli intelligence since October 2023, was arrested early the following year, and had confessed to sharing confidential information online.
Iran, which conducts executions by hanging, is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.
