Israeli fire kills six in Gaza despite new effort to salvage truce

CAIRO/GAZA: Fresh Israeli airstrikes and targeted gunfire killed at least six Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian health officials confirmed. The deadly escalation comes at a highly critical moment as international mediators ramp up diplomatic pressure to salvage a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire agreement.

According to medical sources on the ground, an Israeli airstrike killed at least four individuals near the Al-Yeman Al-Saeed Hospital located within the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

In separate shooting incidents, two additional Palestinians were killed in Gaza City and the southern hub of Khan Younis. The Israeli military did not immediately issue an official comment regarding Sunday’s operations.

The persistent violence unfolded just as regional mediators — Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — concluded an intensive week of high-level consultations with Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

The talks centered on executing the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive Gaza plan, which demands the total disarmament of Hamas in exchange for a complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the enclave.

An initial truce brokered by the Trump administration in October 2025 has struggled significantly to halt recurring Israeli military incursions or finalize the disarmament of active militant networks inside Gaza.

Hamas leadership has repeatedly blamed the deadlock on Israel’s absolute refusal to honor its first-phase obligations under the October framework, which successfully paused large-scale operations but failed to eliminate localized attacks.

Conversely, Israel maintains that its ongoing strikes are purely preemptive measures designed to neutralize imminent security threats posed by Hamas and allied factions.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 950 people since the truce, health officials say, while Israel says four soldiers have been killed by militants in that period.

Hamas blames the absence of a full agreement to end the Gaza conflict on Israel’s refusal to fulfill first-phase obligations agreed in October, which halted major fighting but did not end Israeli attacks. Israel says its strikes are intended to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and other militants.

On Sunday, Hamas and other factions said they had given a written response to a 15-point blueprint presented to them by the mediators and Trump’s Board of Peace, but did not provide details of their response.

Sources close to the talks said the factions agreed to 14 out of the 15 items. Disagreement remains over the disarmament of Hamas, which links any full disarmament to launching a political track toward a Palestinian state.

Israel insists Hamas must disarm, cede power in Gaza and play no role in the future of th