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More than 100 civilians have been killed in Gaza, news outlets and rights groups report, as the weekend saw dozens of ceasefire violations ring out with deadly violence across the Strip.
On Friday, 7 children and 3 women were massacred when a tank round was fired at a bus transporting the Abu Shaaban family to their previous home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. The children were aged 5 to 13, and the IDF reported that the “suspicious vehicle” they were on was approaching a position along the yellow line—the first line of IDF withdrawal demarcated in the recently agreed-upon ceasefire.
Approaching “in a way that threatened them,” the forces struck the vehicle “to remove the threat,” the IDF said, claiming it fired warning shots in advance of the fatal attack.
As many as 93 more civilians were killed across Gaza, many indiscriminately, over Saturday and Sunday in what Palestinian rights groups claim amounted to as many as 129 violations of the ceasefire which went into effect October 10th. 143 people are reported to have been wounded, and together make it seem like so many weekends over the past two years.
The IDF resumed its killings of civilians in response to an alleged attack near Rafah, southern Gaza, which US officials have admitted to knowing was a tracked vehicle striking in IED. Israeli forces said later in the day that two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack, which they described as Hamas soldiers emerging from a tunnel to shoot at them.
Drop Site News, and The American Conservative both cited White House sources who claimed to know the attack was from an unexploded bomb or ordnance piece, and not a direct attack by Hamas, whose spokesmen denied any involvement.
“We have no knowledge of any incidents or clashes taking place in the Rafah area, since these are red zones under occupation control, and contact with what remains of our groups there has been cut off since the war resumed in March of this year,” the military group said in response to the allegations, which resulted in the massacring of civilians through bombing and shelling.
Further unsubstantiated allegations against Hamas resulted in the targeting of a shelter for the displaced in the Nuseirat refugee camp, an attack which killed a further 11 civilians. The IDF has stated unequivocally that Palestinians are not to approach their positions on the yellow line, but the line covers 50% of Gaza, and puts thousands of residents like the Abu Shaaban family at risk of a similar fate if they try to return to their homes.
This morning, a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for talks with US and Israeli officials to discuss the future steps in the agreement and to try and keep afloat the ceasefire before the IDF drown it in further violence. The US remains adamant that Hamas has not violated the ceasefire, but President Trump, in a statement to reporters, clearly believes the besieged militants are the ones to monitor and not the IDF.
“We want to make sure that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas… and as you know, they’ve been quite rambunctious, but either way, it’s going to be handled toughly, but properly,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Turkish and Egyptian guarantors of the deal told New Arab that they had been working “round-the-clock” to try and de-escalate the IDF’s violence. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Gaza in ruins. PC: Jaber Jehad Badwan © via Wikimedia Commons
