Israel Pounds Hamas Targets Across Gaza, Says Militants Are Breaching the Ceasefire
The IDF says a wave of strikes this week killed several Hamas operatives it accuses of rebuilding attack capabilities in violation of the year-old truce, in the most serious test yet of the fragile Gaza ceasefire.
Israel's military carried out a new wave of strikes across the Gaza Strip this week, saying the operations killed several Hamas operatives it accuses of trying to rebuild the group's military capabilities in violation of the ceasefire that has held since last October.
The Israel Defense Forces said strikes between Thursday and Saturday killed at least four Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives, including fighters it described as advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians. According to the Times of Israel, the dead included a sniper operative and a militant the IDF tied to the October 7, 2023 attacks, with the military framing the strikes as a direct response to what it calls Hamas's "systematic" breach of the truce.
Fox News reported that Israel pointed to "multiple attacks" by Hamas as the trigger for its latest round of strikes, which hit targets it described as terrorist infrastructure across the territory.
A Ceasefire Under Strain
The exchange is among the most serious tests yet of the ceasefire agreement that ended the active fighting phase of the war and saw the return of the last hostages held by Hamas earlier this year. Since then, sporadic Israeli strikes targeting individual Hamas figures have continued, with the military consistently describing each as a response to a specific violation rather than a resumption of the broader war.
THE IDF SAYS THE OPERATIVES WERE "ADVANCING ATTACKS" AGAINST TROOPS AND CIVILIANS IN VIOLATION OF THE TRUCE.
Hamas has generally denied involvement in incidents Israel cites as ceasefire violations, and independent verification of events inside Gaza remains difficult given restricted access for outside media. JFeed's reporting noted the latest operation also targeted a militant accused of infiltrating Israeli territory during the 2023 attack.
Mediators who brokered the original truce have not publicly commented on this week's strikes. With the ceasefire now roughly a year old, officials on both sides continue to describe the arrangement as fragile but intact, a characterization this week's violence did little to settle as both sides trade blame over who is actually keeping the peace.