A slew of deadly skirmishes between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza is threatening to derail the fragile ceasefire that President Donald Trump brokered in the region.
Accusations from both sides of ceasefire violations, as well as Hamas’s failure to swiftly return all hostages, have jeopardized the deal since it took effect on Oct. 10.
But while it has continued to hold due to pressure from the United States and its coalition of mediators, tensions escalated this week after Hamas was accused of repeatedly breaking the ceasefire.
In retaliation, the Israel Defense Forces carried out attacks on Hamas across Gaza, triggering concerns from Qatar, viewed by the U.S. as a key partner in peace talks, that the round of strikes on Wednesday posed “a dangerous escalation that threatens to undermine the ceasefire agreement.”
This week, the Trump administration argued Hamas should bear the brunt of the blame for escalating the conflict. The terrorist group feels backed into a corner after the United Nations recently “overwhelmingly endorsed” Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, a U.S. official suggested in comments to the Times of Israel.
“Hamas is clearly lashing out and is now attempting to break the ceasefire and not fulfill their commitment to demilitarize and surrender control of the Gaza government. These desperate tactics will fail,” the official said.
The largest Israeli airstrikes on Gaza took place on Wednesday, killing 32 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The IDF said it carried out the strikes after several Hamas operatives opened fire on Israeli troops on the eastern side of the yellow line, territory Israel controls under the terms of the ceasefire.
Hamas questioned the claim and called Israel’s actions a “dangerous escalation” that could jeopardize the ceasefire.
The same day, the IDF said it killed another terrorist operative accused of breaching the ceasefire by crossing the yellow line. The action came after the IDF said on Monday it killed two Palestinians who posed a “threat” after they crossed the yellow line and approached troops in two separate incidents.
The skirmishes this week mimic several other outbreaks over the past six weeks that have failed to derail the Gaza ceasefire, due in large part to U.S. negotiators, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are pressuring both sides to advance Trump’s peace deal.
The men are now seeking to implement the framework for the next phase of the deal, which includes the full disarmament of Hamas and its military infrastructure. In exchange, Hamas members will be granted amnesty, Israel must eventually completely withdraw from Gaza, and partners will work to create a pathway to a Palestinian state.
While the U.N.’s endorsement of the deal this week offered Trump’s team a key boost, hard details have yet to be implemented.
And Israel has expressed extreme displeasure that Hamas has yet to fulfill the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, regarding returning the remains of hostages it held in Gaza. Three bodies remain in the area, as the terrorist group says it is still searching for remains in the rubble, nearly three months after it signed the agreement with Israel stating it would return all the hostages within 72 hours. In several incidents, most recently on Monday, Hamas has handed over bodies Israel said forensic testing revealed not to be hostages, further inflaming tensions.
Kushner last month called the agreement “very delicate,” highlighting the “complex” effort to stabilize the region in the long term.
“But we just have to stay on top of everyone and try to make sure that everyone works hard to try and create the best outcome possible. This is a very difficult situation and a very difficult dynamic,” he added during a 60 Minutes interview alongside Witkoff. “But one thing I would tell everyone is in the Middle East, you just have to ignore all of the public statements that everyone puts out because they’re all just talking to their political bases.… A lot of business is reading your opponent and hearing what he’s willing to say now and what he’s willing to do later.”
Aside from the turmoil in Gaza, a series of Israeli strikes on Lebanon this week have heightened tensions in the Middle East.
The IDF said Wednesday it had killed two members of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist terrorist group, in separate drone strikes. In one of the strikes on what it described as Hezbollah weapons depots, the IDF said the arms caches were placed in “the heart of a civilian population,” which it said is “another example of the cynical use by the Hezbollah terror organization of Lebanese civilians as human shields.”
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In another military campaign on Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed 13 people in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. The IDF described the area as a “military compound” that was used by Hamas operatives for training “to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
The IDF said it took steps to mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, including by using “a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
