ISRAEL RESUMED AIRSTRIKES on the Gaza Strip today after accusing the Palestinian militant group Hamas of breaking a ceasefire and hostage release deal brokered last week.

“In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today, the IDF has begun a series of strikes against Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip”, the military said in a statement.

At least 21 people across the territory were killed by Israeli strikes, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.

Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said six of the victims 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.

The fatalities were confirmed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital and Al-Awda hospital.

A woman and two children were killed when a drone strike hit a tent housing displaced people near Asdaa City, north of Khan Yunis.

Two people, including a journalist, were killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike in the western part of Zuwaida town in central Gaza.

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, central Gaza, Bassal said.

Two more people were killed in an Israeli air strike in eastern Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, he added.

The Israeli military told AFP it was checking reports of casualties.

Later, the Israeli military said it had launched fresh strikes on Hamas targets in southern Gaza as it accused Hamas of violating its truce agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas and its allies committed to releasing all remaining hostages they seized on October 7, 2023. They have so far released all 20 surviving hostages, but have returned only 12 bodies of the 28 dead hostages they still hold, blaming difficulties in locating them under the rubble.

Besides failing to return all the hostages, Israel accuses Hamas of targeting its troops in areas of the Gaza Strip where they are allowed to be stationed under the deal, a claim that Palestinian militants reject.

An Israeli military official said that a first wave of strikes this morning was in retaliation for at least three attacks against its forces.

According to the official, the army responded to “at least three incidents in which Hamas fired towards our troops standing behind the yellow line in the agreed-upon positions,” referring to the line of withdrawal of the Israeli army under the terms of the ceasefire.

In two incidents in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas allegedly opened fire and launched a rocket-propelled grenade against Israeli troops, some of whom were engineering forces “operating to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in southern Gaza.”

The official said that troops were stationed in areas behind the yellow line where the Israeli military is allowed to manoeuvre under the terms of the truce.

In a separate incident in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants crossed the yellow line into Israel-controlled areas and were “eliminated in a precise strike,” the military official said.

Hamas denied the accusations it had attacked Israeli forces, saying it was adhering to the truce and that Israel was devising “flimsy pretexts” to resume the war.

Palestinian witnesses told news agency AFP that clashes erupted in Rafah, in an area still held by Israel, between Hamas and a local Palestinian gang known as Abu Shabab, supported by Israel.