DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Deadly airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday cast more doubt on whether new U.S. efforts can advance a tenuous ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Earlier this month, Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to disarm . This story has been updated to show that while Hamas has announced the dissolution of the government, it has not yet taken place.
But Hamas said it would begin to disarm if Israel halts strikes and withdraws, adding that laying down its heavy weapons would come later and be contingent on the creation of a Palestinian state — something Israel’s government rejects.
One person was killed in Nuseirat. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. Just two days after U.S. negotiators reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks in the Gaza Strip , at least 10 people were killed Wednesday in two strikes, according to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 abducted. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the Wednesday Gaza City strike on the police station killed eight police officers and a 13-year-old girl. The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists, the person spoke on condition of anonymity.
Israeli troops also crossed the ceasefire line in southern Gaza and detained a Hamas police colonel at dawn Wednesday, two witnesses and a Hamas official said. A second strike in the Tuffah area of Gaza City struck four Hamas militants gathering in a police station, the military said, claiming they were planning to carry out attacks against Israeli troops. Israel’s military said a strike the day before targeted a meeting of four Hamas commanders and additional militants. Two officers were women, it said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of the toll.
Israel’s military said one of the strikes on Wednesday, in the area of Nuseirat refugee camp, struck a Hamas commander who had participated in the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct. On Tuesday evening, an Israeli strike on a busy seaside cafe killed seven Palestinians, including a child, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Jared Kushner, a U.S. negotiator and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, held a marathon meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, in which he asked Israel’s leader to draw down attacks on Gaza, a person familiar with the meeting said.
