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Gaza’s civil defence agency said 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded in multiple Israeli air strikes on Saturday, as Hamas and Israel again traded allegations of violating the fragile ceasefire.Saturday was one of the deadliest days since the US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after two years of war.The Israeli military said an “armed terrorist” had crossed the so-called Yellow Line within the Gaza Strip, behind which Israeli forces have withdrawn, and fired at Israeli soldiers.In response to the incident in southern Gaza, which it said was on a route used for humanitarian aid deliveries in the territory, the Israeli military said it “began striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip”.Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency which operates under Hamas authority, told AFP there were “21 martyrs this evening in five separate Israeli air strikes, in a clear violation of the ceasefire in Gaza”.They included seven killed and more than 16 injured in a strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, and four killed and several injured in an air strike on a residential apartment in the Al-Nasr district, west of Gaza City, he said.According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, as of Thursday, 312 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire since the truce took hold.- Children carried into hospital -Bassal said one strike hit a house in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.At Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, AFP witnessed children being brought to the hospital in ambulances and carried inside. Some casualties were taken in on stretchers.Health ministry spokesman Khalil al-Daqran said “more than 20 injured” had been brought to the hospital, “most of them women and children”.”Among the injuries, there are many severe wounds to the head and chest,” he told AFP.The first reported strike targeted a vehicle in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City. Five people were killed and several injured, said Bassal.An AFP photographer at the scene witnessed passers-by approaching the wreckage of the burnt-out car, with children appearing to be trying to salvage food from inside.-Truce violation claims -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of breaching the truce agreement.”Hamas violated the ceasefire again, sending a terrorist into Israel held territory to attack IDF soldiers,” it said on X. “In response, Israel eliminated five senior Hamas terrorists.””Israel has fully honoured the ceasefire, Hamas has not. We again call on the mediators to insist that Hamas fulfil its side of the ceasefire.”In a statement, Hamas said the “escalation” of Israeli violations were “attempts to undermine the ceasefire”.”We call on the mediators to intervene urgently and exert pressure to stop these violations immediately.”The Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, condemned the strikes.It urged the international community to put “immediate pressure” on Israel in order to “stop the massacres”.- Ceasefire ‘pointless’ -The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said the ceasefire scale-up of aid deliveries into Gaza “is still being held back by restrictions affecting visas and import approvals, too few crossing points operating” and other impediments.Jihad Abed Al-Aziz, who was displaced to Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, was at a food distribution point where dozens of people jostled for a pan of rice.”A ceasefire is pointless,” the 55-year-old told AFP.”The crossings do not bring in enough to give us food, supplies, or even the basics of life. “We have lost our jobs, our homes, and everything in our lives. Life itself has no meaning any more.”The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,733 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded in multiple Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory on Saturday, further straining the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas.Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10.The Israeli military said an “armed terrorist” had crossed the so-called Yellow Line boundary within the Gaza Strip, behind which Israeli troops have withdrawn, and fired at soldiers, in a “blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.The Israeli military said that in response to the incident in southern Gaza, on a route used for humanitarian aid deliveries in the territory, it “began striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip”.Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency which operates under Hamas authority, told AFP there were “21 martyrs this evening in five separate Israeli air strikes, in a clear violation of the ceasefire in Gaza”.AFP has sought a comment from the Israeli military on Saturday’s air strikes.The first reported strike targeted a vehicle in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City. An AFP photographer at the scene witnessed the burned-out car.Passers-by approached the wreckage, with children appearing to be trying to salvage food from inside.Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect last month after more than two years of war.On Wednesday, Gaza saw one of its deadliest days since the truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect, with officials reporting 27 fatalities.According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday, 312 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the truce took hold.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,733 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed one person on Saturday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, in the latest attack despite a nearly year-long ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.In a statement, the ministry attributed the death to “an Israeli enemy strike” on a vehicle in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.The ministry also reported that a grenade dropped by an Israeli drone in the southern town of Shaqra wounded five people.Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported several more strikes elsewhere in the south and east, but no casualties reported so far.The Israeli military said it struck “several Hezbollah launchers that were recently identified and placed in military sites in southern Lebanon”.The army also hit “two Hezbollah military sites… including weapons storage facilities and additional military structures”, according to its statement.It did not immediately comment on the deadly incident in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.The NNA identified the man killed as Kamel Reda Qarnabash, saying he was driving at the time.The Israeli army earlier on Saturday had said that it killed a Hezbollah member in a strike the day before.”In a targeted strike the (Israeli army) eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist in the Froun area in southern Lebanon” on Friday, the military said in a statement.It alleged the Hezbollah member had “advanced terror attacks against the State of Israel” and its forces.The Lebanese health ministry said Friday that an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Froun killed one person.- Continued attacks -Lebanon has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 — which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah — by continuing its strikes and maintaining forces inside its territory. Israel has said Hezbollah is working to rebuild its military capabilities, accusing the Iran-backed group of breaking the ceasefire terms.According to the health ministry, more than 330 people have been killed in Lebanon and 945 wounded since the ceasefire.An Israeli strike on Tuesday night on the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon killed 13 people.On Friday, Israel said it had targeted “terrorists” from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, allied with Hezbollah, in the strike on the camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon.Israel’s military “is operating against Hamas’s establishment in Lebanon”, it said in Friday’s statement.A secondary school in the camp said in a statement on its Facebook page on Thursday that two of its students were killed, publishing an image of two adolescent boys.The United States has sought to pressure the Lebanese government to make Hezbollah hand over its weapons, which the group has so far refused to do.