Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza after ceasefire agreement announced

Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza ahead of the ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas, which takes effect on Sunday, subject to approval by the Israeli cabinet.

The strikes killed 62 people overnight following the announcement of the deal, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported.

Gaza’s civil defense agency raised the toll, saying at least 73 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

The victims included 12 people who lived in a residential block in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the Health Ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces initially said that “a dropped projectile” had been identified in southern Israel on Thursday, but later said it had been misidentified.

Israel has previously launched airstrikes in the run-up to the ceasefire agreements coming into force, most recently in Lebanon, where heavy bombing hit the capital, Beirut, just hours before the ceasefire in November.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was He is expected to ratify the Gaza Treaty. ceasefire agreement in parliament on Thursday, but his office alleges that Hamas has “breached” parts of the agreement, causing a “last-minute crisis.”

He adds that the cabinet will not meet until Hamas has accepted “all elements of the agreement.”

A senior Hamas official told the BBC that his movement was committed to the agreement announced by mediators and that the head of its delegation, Khalil al-Hayya, had officially informed Qatar and Egypt of his approval of all the terms of the agreement. .

Two far-right ministers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have long threatened to leave the government coalition if the ceasefire goes ahead.

That could trigger new elections in Israel, but their resignations will not block the deal if Netanyahu wants it to happen, observers say.

Qatar’s prime minister, who mediated the negotiations, has called for “calm” from both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement.

This will involve the exchange of 33 hostages, including women, children and the elderly, for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli forces will also withdraw to the east, away from densely populated areas of Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians will be allowed to begin returning to their homes and hundreds of aid trucks will eventually be allowed into the territory each day.

Negotiations for the second phase, which should allow for the release of the remaining hostages, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and a return to “sustainable calm”, will begin on the 16th.

The third and final stage will involve returning the bodies of the remaining hostages and rebuilding Gaza, something that could take years.

Achim Steiner of the United Nations Development Programme, told the BBC’s Newsday program that rebuilding Gaza would be a huge challenge, given the massive destruction inflicted by the war.

He said 40 million tons of “toxic” debris needed to be removed before Gazans could return to where their homes used to be.

“This is a very complex task that we face now,” he said.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas, which is banned as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and others, in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken. as hostages. .

More than 46,700 people have died in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.

Most of the 2.3 million people have also been displaced, there is widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter, as aid agencies struggle to get aid to those in need.

Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, and 34 of them are presumed dead. Additionally, there are four Israelis who were kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.