The future of the ceasefire in Gaza is uncertain after increased violence between Israel and Hamas over the weekend.
Both sides have accused each other of multiple breaches of the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on 10 October.
Israel launched air strikes on Gaza on Sunday night and has paused humanitarian aid delivery, after it accused Hamas killing two soldiers.
Officials in Gaza said Israel killed 44 Palestinians on Sunday.
Context
Earlier this month, Israel and Hamas agreed to a U.S-led ceasefire plan.
Under the first phase of the peace agreement, Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages.
Israel then released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The first phase also involved Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza to an “agreed upon line”.
Hostage return
Hamas took 240 hostages when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.
Before the latest ceasefire deal, the bodies of an estimated 28 hostages were believed to remain in Gaza.
Israel confirmed it has received the bodies of 12 hostages over the past week. With at least 16 hostages yet to be returned, it accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement.
However, Hamas said it requires machinery to locate the bodies, which are thought to be buried beneath the rubble of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Strikes
On Friday, Israel struck a vehicle in northern Gaza, killing at least nine people, including four children, according to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
Israel said it fired at a “suspicious vehicle” that had crossed a demarcation line.
On Sunday, Palestinian militants killed two soldiers in southern Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The strike took place in an Israeli-controlled area of southeastern Rafah.
The IDF called the incident “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Hamas said it was “unaware of any events or clashes taking place in the Rafah area”.
Israel responded with a “series of significant strikes” across Gaza on Sunday night, which it claimed hit “dozens of Hamas terror targets”.
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Israel’s latest actions in the region killed at least 44 Palestinians, the Hamas-run Gaza media office said.
Hamas has accused Israel of continued breaches of the ceasefire agreement.
It said in a statement: “These violations have included crimes of direct gunfire against civilians, deliberate shelling and targeting, and the arrest of a number of civilians, reflecting the occupation’s continued policy of aggression despite the declared end of the war.”
Following the wave of strikes, the IDF said it “has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire.”
Both sides say they remain committed to the deal.
Aid
The IDF halted the entry of aid into Gaza before carrying out Sunday’s deadly strikes.
It had already begun restricting aid deliveries last Tuesday, in response to the missing hostages.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Israel must allow the flow of aid “without any obstacles”.
There has been no official announcement on when aid will resume, but anonymous officials have told global media outlets that aid delivery will return on Monday.
U.S.
On Wednesday, footage began circulating online, which appears to show several public executions by Hamas against rival factions within Gaza.
In a post to his platform Truth Social on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote: “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”
Trump later clarified that he doesn’t plan on sending U.S. troops into Gaza, but said: “There are people very close, very nearby that will go in and they’ll do the trick very easily”.
Then, over the weekend, U.S. officials said they’d received “credible reports” of a planned ceasefire violation by Hamas, “against the people of Gaza”.
The U.S. State Department warned the plan risked undermining “significant progress achieved through [ceasefire] mediation,” but did not release further details.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance will attend negotiations in Israel this week, where he’s expected to push for the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire.
UN response
According to a recent UN update, “it has been more than 30 days since the last [UN-coordinated] food aid convoy entered northern Gaza”.
It said the unrestricted flow of aid is “critical” to ensuring the “large-scale entry of food supplies to address the needs of thousands” in Gaza.
“We will not accept any interference with our aid distribution... No one expected this to be straightforward, [but] it is essential that we do not squander the immense progress made,” UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher said.
