The Israeli army has carried out another series of attacks in Gaza, continuing the bombardment despite a ceasefire that remains in place on paper, as Palestinian factions prepare to travel to Egypt to discuss the future of the enclave.
In the attack on Friday morning, an Israeli drone killed a young woman and wounded at least 15 others in the southern Khan Younis area, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Later in the day, another Israeli strike near Gaza City wounded a child.
Hani Mahmoud, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Gaza City, said the ongoing attacks maintain a "dark reality" in Gaza, leaving Palestinians bewildered by the state of the so-called ceasefire.
„We see the night strikes, the drone strikes, the constant closure of border crossings to people waiting for medical evacuation or humanitarian aid,” our correspondent said. „Even if you spend just a few hours here… you can easily see repeated incidents that lead to injuries, deaths, forced displacement, and a pervasive state of fear and panic.”
The latest Israeli strikes came after the Gaza Civil Defense said on Thursday that at least 11 people were killed, including five members of a family, in residential buildings. The Israeli military said one of the targets of Thursday's attack in northern Gaza was a gunman it said was planning direct attacks on Israeli forces and directing Israeli operations.
Palestinian factions travel to Egypt for talks
Despite the ceasefire technically being in place since October, the Israeli military has been regularly attacking Gaza, more than half of which is under Israeli military control, in violation of the ceasefire terms. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 947 people have been killed and 2,935 injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began.
The first phase of the ceasefire involved the release of the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel. The transition to the second phase of the ceasefire – which would have involved the disarmament of Hamas and the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army – has been stalled for months.
Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram on Friday that some of its officials had arrived in Cairo for meetings planned for the weekend with Egyptian officials and mediators to „finalize the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.”.
The Palestinian group added that they would also discuss how to „stop the repeated Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and establish appropriate mechanisms to enter the second phase of the agreement.”.
Earlier, Husam Badran, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told Al Jazeera that the group would not lay down its arms for now, but would commit to a future Palestinian police force. This force would operate under a technocratic committee administering Gaza and would be the only organization that would be allowed to openly bear arms.
„We are not talking about handing over weapons; we are talking about keeping weapons out of sight, except for the official weapons of the Palestinian police,” Badran said. „The details of this will be discussed within a national framework.”
