Israel killed at least 45 Palestinians
Gaza civil defense says at least 45 killed in Israeli strikes Sunday
- Fatalities were confirmed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital and Al-Awda hospital
- Israel and Hamas traded blame for violating a ceasefire
GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency and hospitals said a series of Israeli air strikes across the territory killed at least 45 people on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 33.
The Israeli military said it had struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip, as both Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the nine-day-old ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.
“At least 45 people were killed as a result of Israeli air strikes on various areas of the Gaza Strip,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, told AFP.
Four hospitals in Gaza confirmed the death toll to AFP, saying they had received the dead and wounded.
Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat reported 24 dead and 73 wounded from multiple strikes in central Gaza.
Al-Aqsa Hospital said it received 12 dead from nearby bombings, while Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis reported five dead, and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed four fatalities.
Earlier, Bassal detailed several of the strikes.
He said six people 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.
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.
One individual was killed in a strike on an apartment in a building in western Gaza City, the civil defense agency said.
The others succumbed later on Sunday to injuries received in these strikes, Bassal said.
The Israeli military told AFP it was checking reports of casualties.
Later on Sunday, the Israeli military said it has resumed enforcing the ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel launches strikes on Gaza and pauses aid
Israel launches strikes on Gaza and pauses aid as ceasefire comes under strain
Military says it bombed dozens of targets after two troops killed in Hamas attack
FT19-10-2025
The ceasefire in Gaza came under severe strain on Sunday, with Israel launching air strikes on dozens of targets and halting the flow of aid after accusing Hamas of attacking its forces in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israel Defense Forces said two soldiers were killed when militants fired on them in Rafah in southern Gaza, in an area behind the so-called yellow line to which the Israeli army withdrew as part of the ceasefire. It said militants had also crossed the yellow line in a separate incident in northern Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had ordered the military to take “strong action” in response, and the IDF said on Sunday evening that it had begun a “series of strikes” in Gaza.
A security official said aid deliveries had also been halted “until further notice”, but a political official later said they would resume once Israel had completed its wave of air strikes. The military subsequently said it had resumed the ceasefire “in accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes”.
The flare-up is the most serious challenge so far to the nascent ceasefire, which was brokered by US President Donald Trump as part of a broader plan to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas said that it remained committed to the truce and accused Netanyahu’s government of using “flimsy pretexts” to justify violating the ceasefire to appease his far-right coalition partners.
These lawmakers have demanded that Israel continue the war until the militant group is destroyed.
Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of two far-right parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, demanded that Israel resume its offensive in Gaza “at full force”, calling for Hamas to be “completely destroyed”.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the other ultranationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, simply wrote “War!” on X.
The Israeli strikes came after 10 days of a fragile truce during which Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that, as of Sunday afternoon, eight people had been killed in Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours, and that 35 people had been killed in total since the ceasefire took effect.
First responders in the enclave said on Saturday that at least nine people — including three women and four children — were killed when Israeli forces fired on a vehicle in Gaza City.
Israeli officials have meanwhile accused Hamas of firing at soldiers in Gaza and delaying the release of the bodies of the dead hostages it still holds.
As of Sunday morning, Hamas had handed over 12 of the 28 remaining hostage bodies. Officials named two bodies returned on Saturday as Ronen Engel from Israel and Sonthaya Oakkharasri from Thailand.
The militant group said it had found and would hand over another body later on Sunday “if field conditions are suitable”.
The deal required the group to return the remains of all the dead hostages at the same time as the final living captives last Monday. But in cases where it could not locate bodies, the deal allowed for Hamas to share information about their expected whereabouts and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
US officials said earlier this week that the pace at which bodies are being returned is in line with what they had expected, given the level of destruction in Gaza.
But the Trump administration warned on Saturday that Hamas was preparing an attack on Palestinian civilians, saying it would “constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Hamas denied it was planning any attack or ceasefire violation, calling the claims “fully consistent with misleading Israeli propaganda”.
