Copy in clipboard...
Israel kills nine more Palestinians in breach of Gaza truce
Israeli soldiers killed on Tuesday at least nine Palestinians trying to return to their homes in Gaza, in the first major violation of a US-brokered cease-fire agreement between the regime and Hamas.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the cease-fire while the Israeli military claimed that it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.
Six bodies were taken on Tuesday to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, while three others were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to Palestine’s official Wafa news agency.
Among the dead, seven were killed in Israeli attacks on Tuesday, while two others succumbed to earlier injuries, the sources added.
Tuesday’s killings came days after Hamas and Israel agreed to cease hostilities. Under the 20-point peace plan proposed by the US president, Hamas also released all remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The deadly attacks underscore the challenges ahead to keeping the cease-fire on track as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been displaced multiple times throughout the war try to return to their homes.
The ceasefire is also expected to allow for a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where famine has broken out amid Israel’s bombardment and blockade of the territory. Many of Gaza’s more than two million people are reported to be on the brink of starvation.
Israel delayed aid into Gaza and kept the territory’s border shut on Tuesday.
Three Israeli officials said Israel had decided to restrict aid into the shattered Gaza Strip and delay plans to open the border crossing to Egypt at least through Wednesday, because Hamas had been too slow to turn over bodies of dead captives. Hamas has said locating the bodies is difficult.
So far, Hamas has handed over four coffins of dead captives, leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for, still in Gaza.
The cease-fire has stopped two years of devastating Isarel’s onslaught on Gaza.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 68,000 people according to local health authorities, with thousands more feared dead under the rubble. Gaza's Civil Defense Service said 250 bodies had been recovered since the truce began.
Swathes of Gaza are in ruins and the global hunger monitor said in August there was famine in the territory. Thousands of Gazans have been returning to homes since the cease-fire, many finding whole streets bombed into dust.