Israel killed at least 10 Palestinians across Gaza, just as the United States announced that the two sides had progressed to the second phase of a 20-point ceasefire deal with Hamas to end the conflict.
The Wafa news agency reported that the Israeli military bombed two houses belonging to the al-Hawli and the al-Jarou families in the central town of Deir el-Balah on Thursday evening, with health officials confirming a 16-year-old minor was among six killed.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items
- list 1 of 3Trump on the future of Gaza: In his own words
- list 2 of 3Gaza’s ceasefire moves to next phase, but is it working?
- list 3 of 3Timeline of Israel’s genocide on Gaza
end of list
The Israeli military announced that one of the victims, Muhammad al-Hawli, was a commander in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili confirmed that a “senior figure of the Qassam Brigades” had been killed and that the attack underscored Israel’s message that it would be defining phase two of the ceasefire “on its terms”.
Israel, he said, had set the terms of the next phase of the ceasefire, which will see the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic administration overseen by an international “Board of Peace”, with the option of “escalation” remaining very much “on the table”.
Elsewhere in the war-torn enclave, at least one person was shot dead by Israeli forces near Al-Alam roundabout, west of Rafah city, another person was killed in an Israeli attack on a police post near Al-Nablusi Junction, southwest of Gaza City and two more people were killed in an Israeli air attack on the Al-Khatib family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
‘Despicable crime’
Hamas condemned the targeting of the al-Hawli home as a “despicable crime”, saying that it revealed the “contempt” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the October ceasefire, but did not confirm the death of one of its commanders.
At least 451 Palestinians, including more than 100 children, have been reported killed since the ceasefire took effect, with Israel ordering residents out of more than half of Gaza, where its troops remain behind an apparently mobile “yellow line“.
Three Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced in a post on X on Wednesday that the second phase of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict had been launched, “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.
The next phase would bring “the full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza, primarily the disarmament of all unauthorized personnel”, he said, with reference to Hamas, which has so far refused to publicly commit to full disarmament.
The plan also calls for the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force to help secure Gaza and train vetted Palestinian police units.
The 15-member technocratic committee, name