U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza remained intact despite fresh Israeli airstrikes that Gaza health authorities said killed at least 26 people, as Israel and Hamas traded accusations over who breached the truce.
The strikes, launched on Tuesday and continuing into early Wednesday according to witnesses, hit multiple locations across the Gaza Strip.
Gaza health officials reported five people killed in a house in the Bureij refugee camp, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis. An Israeli strike near Shifa hospital was also reported.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he understood an Israeli soldier had been killed and defended Israel’s response.
“So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back,” he said, while adding: “Nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire. He warned that Hamas “has to behave.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had ordered immediate “powerful attacks.” An Israeli military official told reporters the strikes followed what it described as a Hamas attack on Israeli forces in an area of Gaza under Israeli control, calling it “yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire.”
Hamas denied responsibility for the reported attack and said it remained committed to the ceasefire.
The three-week-old ceasefire, brokered by the Trump administration, went into effect on Oct. 10 and paused a conflict that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Both sides have accused each other of violations since the truce began, and the handling of recovered remains and hostage-related issues has been a recurring flashpoint.
Despite the flare-up, Trump insisted the truce was not at risk, while also issuing a stark warning about Hamas.
“If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated,” he said, comments that underscore the high tensions surrounding the fragile arrangement.
The renewed strikes underscore how fragile the ceasefire remains: even limited exchanges can quickly escalate public anger and military responses on both sides, complicating international efforts to keep the truce and to press forward with searches for missing hostages and the return of remains.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
