GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — At least 22 Palestinians, including women, children, and elderly individuals, were killed on Saturday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting homes and a civilian vehicle across the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza's Civil Defense and health officials. The attacks, which destroyed entire buildings and left dozens wounded, marked a significant escalation and apparent violation of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025, following nearly two years of devastating conflict. The strikes come amid ongoing tensions, with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching the truce, raising fears that the fragile peace could unravel just weeks after the United Nations Security Council endorsed a U.S. blueprint for Gaza's stabilization and potential path to Palestinian statehood.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense, detailed the casualties in a video statement released Saturday afternoon, emphasizing the civilian nature of the targets. "These attacks hit residential areas where families were seeking shelter, destroying homes and claiming innocent lives, including vulnerable women, children, and the elderly," Bassal said, his voice steady but laced with urgency as footage showed rescuers sifting through rubble under a haze of smoke. Bassal reported that the strikes unfolded in rapid succession over several hours, beginning early in the morning and intensifying by midday, with emergency teams overwhelmed by the scale of destruction.
The deadliest incidents occurred in Gaza City and the central Gaza Strip. In western Gaza City, an Israeli drone strike targeted a civilian vehicle near Abbas Junction, killing five people instantly and wounding several others who were rushed to nearby Al-Shifa Hospital. Witnesses described the vehicle erupting in flames, with charred remains and scattered debris marking the site. "We were just driving to get food for the family when the sky exploded," recounted one survivor, speaking anonymously from his hospital bed, as medics treated burns and shrapnel wounds. Later in the same city, four Palestinians perished when a missile struck a home on al-Labbabidi Street, collapsing the structure and trapping residents inside. Rescue efforts stretched into the evening, with Civil Defense teams using bare hands and limited equipment to pull survivors from the wreckage.
Further south, in the central Gaza Strip, two people were killed and multiple others injured in a strike on a house adjacent to the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in western Deir al-Balah. Bassal noted that the blast shattered windows for blocks and ignited a fire that threatened nearby tents housing displaced families. The Nuseirat refugee camp, a densely populated area sheltering tens of thousands of displaced residents, bore the brunt of the violence. Three Palestinians died in an airstrike on a home next to Al-Awda Hospital, where medical staff were already stretched thin treating chronic shortages of supplies. In a separate attack on a residence in Camp 2 of Nuseirat, seven more were killed, including four children, pushing the camp's toll to 10 and drawing sharp condemnation from aid groups. Bassal did not specify locations for the remaining fatalities, but health ministry figures indicate additional strikes scattered across northern and southern zones contributed to the overall count.
Beyond the airstrikes, Israeli ground forces shot and injured three Palestinians near al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and in the Jabalia area in the north, medics reported. These shootings occurred near the so-called "yellow line," a demarcation established under the ceasefire that separates Israeli-controlled zones—encompassing over 50% of Gaza—from Palestinian-inhabited areas. The line, intended as a buffer for security and aid corridors, has instead become a flashpoint, with civilians venturing too close risking lethal fire.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement justifying the operations as a response to a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire. "An armed terrorist crossed the yellow line and fired at our troops, exploiting a humanitarian aid route," the IDF said, claiming to have "eliminated" the gunman and subsequently targeted Hamas infrastructure, including five senior militants. The military detailed dawn raids east of al-Bureij and Deir al-Balah, as well as in eastern Rafah, Khan Younis, Tuffah, and Shujaiya neighborhoods in Gaza City. These included airstrikes, detonations of booby-trapped vehicles, and artillery shelling from positions along the yellow line. Witnesses in Rafah and Khan Younis described residential buildings exploding in sequence, with Israeli forces methodically destroying facilities in the yellow zone. "The ground shook like an earthquake; we could hear the vehicles rumbling closer before the blasts," said a local resident in Shujaiya, who fled with his family to a makeshift shelter.
Friday's prelude to Saturday's violence saw similar targeting of Palestinian structures in Khan Younis, Gaza City, Bureij, and Jabalia camps, underscoring a pattern of re-escalation east of the yellow line. Since the ceasefire began, Israeli forces have demolished vast swaths of land, rendering adjacent areas hazardous with unexploded ordnance and collapsed infrastructure, according to UN assessments. The total death toll from post-ceasefire incidents has now climbed to at least 318 Palestinians, with 788 wounded, per Gaza's health ministry—averaging over seven fatalities daily. On the Israeli side, three soldiers have been killed in related clashes.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group governing Gaza, decried the strikes as "fabricated pretexts" for resuming a "war of extermination," urging mediators—the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar—to intervene. In a statement, Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq accused Israel of evading disarmament obligations while demanding the release of remaining hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office countered that Hamas must fulfill its commitments, including returning three deceased hostages and completing disarmament, as stipulated in the deal. Netanyahu posted on X that Israel had "fully adhered" to the agreement, despite the mounting casualties.
The ceasefire, part of President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan, was hailed as a breakthrough when it halted the intense offensive that began after Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and abducted 251 hostages. Nearly all hostages or their remains have since been returned through phased deals. In retaliation, Israel's campaign has killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians—predominantly women and children—injured over 170,800, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble, the enclave's health ministry reports. The truce has allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to ruined homes, but aid flows remain inconsistent, and reconstruction lags amid security concerns.
International reaction was swift and divided. Qatar, a key mediator, condemned the "brutal" strikes as a "dangerous escalation" threatening the agreement. The UN Security Council, fresh from approving Trump's plan on Monday—which authorizes an international stabilization force and a transitional authority under U.S. oversight—expressed alarm, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for restraint to preserve the "fragile hope" for lasting peace. Human Rights Watch highlighted the strikes as potential violations of international humanitarian law, citing the disproportionate impact on civilians and forcible displacements from refugee camps. In the U.S., a State Department spokesperson reiterated support for the ceasefire but urged both parties to de-escalate, noting Hamas's "desperate tactics" in prior incidents.
Aid organizations painted a grim picture of the aftermath. UNICEF warned that two children are killed daily in Gaza even under the ceasefire, with Saturday's strikes exacerbating risks from unexploded devices and contaminated water. Doctors Without Borders reported hospitals like Al-Aqsa in Deir al-Balah overflowing, with surgeons operating without anesthesia amid fuel shortages. "These aren't isolated events; they're part of a systematic erosion of civilian safety," said a MSF field coordinator.
As night fell, Gaza's skies lit up sporadically with flares and distant booms, a stark reminder of the unresolved grievances fueling the conflict. Mediators scheduled emergency talks for Sunday, but with trust eroded and accusations flying, analysts fear a full resumption of hostilities. For families like those in Nuseirat—now burying loved ones amid the ruins—the ceasefire feels more like a pause than peace. "We thought the bombs had stopped, but death found us anyway," one grieving father told reporters, cradling a child's photo amid the debris.
The broader implications ripple beyond Gaza. Parallel Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed 13 in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, the deadliest since a separate Israel-Hezbollah truce, signaling interconnected regional flashpoints. Trump's plan, while ambitious in envisioning Palestinian sovereignty, hinges on demilitarization and international buy-in—elements now strained by Saturday's bloodletting. As the world watches, the yellow line in Gaza has become not just a boundary, but a symbol of how thin the thread of peace truly is.
