Ceasefire at risk as Israel carries out Gaza strikes

Israel carried out another strike in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least two people, after bombarding the territory on Tuesday night and killing at least 104 Palestinians, including children, in the gravest challenge yet to the increasingly fragile US-brokered ceasefire.

- Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem William Christou Beirut Seham Tantesh Gaza

The Israeli military said it had struck military infrastructure where weapons were being stored for an imminent attack in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said it had received two bodies from the strike.

After the Tuesday night bombardment, Israel said it was again adhering to the ceasefire, and statements from US officials seemed to indicate they did not consider the ceasefire to have been broken. But yesterday’s strike casts doubt on Israel’s willingness to comply with the truce, which obligates both parties to stop their attacks.

The strikes on Tuesday, some of the bloodiest attacks in the two-year war, killed at least 46 children and 20 women and injured 200 people, according to Gaza's civil defence agency. They took place hours after Donald Trump had said nothing would jeopardise the ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli military released an infographic showing 25 "terrorists" it had killed in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, but did not explain the identity of the other 79 people killed.

The strikes shattered the shortlived relief Palestinians had felt since the start of the ceasefire. Funerals were held for the victims of the latest attacks at hospitals across Gaza yesterday. Some had been carried into medical facilities in the arms of loved ones.