Israeli warplanes and artillery struck the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday and Palestinian medics said eight people were killed, shortly after Israel and Hamas missed a deadline for a ceasefire that may pave the way in which for ending the Middle East's most devastating conflict in years could pave.
The delay in implementing the ceasefire and the recent outbreak of violence got here after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an hour before the 06:30 GMT deadline, called on Hamas to supply the names of three hostages it had held on Sunday needs to be released under the agreement.
Hamas said it was committed to the ceasefire but had to this point been unable to supply the hostage list for “technical reasons,” without elaborating.
The ceasefire agreement could help end the Gaza war, which began after the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the tiny coastal territory, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, in response to Israeli authorities.
According to Gaza-based health authorities, Israel's response has decimated the Gaza Strip and killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians. The war also sparked a confrontation across the Middle East between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran, which supports Hamas and other anti-Israel and anti-American paramilitary forces across the region.
Israeli military spokesmen said in separate statements on Sunday that their aircraft and artillery had struck “terrorist targets” within the northern and central Gaza Strip and that the military would proceed to attack the strip so long as Hamas didn’t meet its ceasefire obligations.
The Palestinian Civil Defense Service said not less than eight people were killed and dozens injured within the Israeli strikes. Medics reported tanks firing on the Zeitoun area of Gaza City and said an airstrike and tank fire also hit the northern town of Beit Hanoun, sending residents returning there in anticipation of the ceasefire fleeing would have.
An air raid siren that sounded within the Sderot area of southern Israel was a false alarm, the Israeli military said in a separate statement.
Some celebratory gunfire and cheers were heard within the southern town of Khan Younis at 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), when the ceasefire was resulting from take effect.
Israeli forces have begun withdrawing from areas in Gaza's Rafah Strip into the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border, pro-Hamas media reported early Sunday.
Hostage list
Netanyahu's demand for an inventory of the primary three hostages to be released within the hours after the ceasefire got here an hour before the deadline.
“The prime minister has instructed the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) that the ceasefire, which is scheduled to take effect at 8:30 a.m., will only begin once Israel has the list of released abductees that Hamas has promised,” his said office said on Sunday.
Hamas said the delay was “technical” but that the names of the hostages could possibly be revealed very soon.
The three-tier ceasefire agreement followed months of negotiations between Egypt, Qatar and the United States and got here just before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
The first phase will last six weeks, during which 33 of the remaining 98 hostages – women, children, men over 50, the sick and wounded – shall be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
They include 737 male, female and teenage prisoners, a few of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, in addition to a whole lot of Palestinians from Gaza who’ve been detained because the war began.
The first three are female hostages who’re expected to be released by the Red Cross on Sunday. In return, 30 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons shall be released.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas will inform the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) where the meeting point shall be within the Gaza Strip, and the ICRC is predicted to start driving to that location to select up the hostages, in response to an am Officials involved in the method told Reuters.
End the war?
Following the discharge of the hostages on Sunday, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said the deal calls for the discharge of 4 additional female hostages after seven days, followed by the discharge of three additional hostages every seven days thereafter.
US President Joe Biden's team worked closely with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to get the deal over the finish line.
As his inauguration neared, Trump repeated his call for a fast deal and repeatedly warned that there could be “hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t released.
But what is going to occur next in Gaza stays unclear within the absence of a comprehensive agreement on the postwar way forward for the enclave, which is able to require billions of dollars and years of labor to rebuild.
And while the ceasefire's stated goal is to finish the war entirely, it could easily fail.
Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for nearly twenty years, has survived despite the lack of its top leadership and 1000’s of fighters.
Israel has vowed it is going to not allow Hamas to return to power and has evacuated large areas of the Gaza Strip. The move is widely seen as a step toward making a buffer zone that can allow its troops to freely act against threats within the enclave.
In Israel, the return of the hostages could ease a number of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest day within the country's history.
Shock waves within the Middle East
The war sent shockwaves across the region, sparking conflict with the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement and bringing Israel into direct conflict with its arch-enemy Iran for the primary time.
It also modified the Middle East. Iran, which has spent billions constructing a network of militant groups around Israel, has seen its “Axis of Resistance” destroyed and didn’t inflict greater than minimal damage on Israel in two major rocket attacks.
Hezbollah, whose vast missile arsenal was once considered Israel's biggest threat, has seen its top leadership killed and most of its missiles and military infrastructure destroyed.
On the diplomatic front, Israel has faced outrage and isolation over the death and devastation in Gaza.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges and separate allegations of genocide before the International Court of Justice.
Israel has responded to each cases with anger, dismissing the costs as politically motivated and accusing South Africa, which brought the unique ICJ case, and the countries that joined it of anti-Semitism.
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