New fears for ceasefire after IDF kills seven Palestinians

Israel Defense Forces say the men, believed to be civilians, had crossed a 'yellow line' and walked towards the soldiers

- JAMES C. REYNOLDS

There are fears the fragile Gaza ceasefire could collapse after reports of Palestinians killed the day after Donald Trump announced peace.

Palestinian Civil Defence said yesterday that seven people had been killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents, in eastern Gaza and to the east of Khan Younis, in the south.

Israel has also announced it will keep the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt closed and restrict aid until Hamas returns the bodies of deceased hostages. It told the UN it would halve the amount of aid to 300 aid trucks from today.

Four more dead hostages were handed over by Hamas late yesterday evening, with 20 remaining in Gaza. The bodies were transferred to the Red Cross who passed them on to the Israeli military.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said five Palestinians were killed after approaching troops in Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood, the Times of Israel reported. The IDF said in a statement that several suspects were spotted “crossing the yellow line and approaching IDF troops” in what they called “a clear violation of the agreement”.

They said that after “multiple attempts to distance them”, the suspects refused to comply and that troops opened fire. Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement. Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces pulled back to where they were in August, before launching their latest offensive on Gaza City. The pullback leaves a number of hard-hit Palestinian neighbourhoods under Israeli control, and Israel has warned residents not to try to return to homes there.

The Israeli military also confirmed that Daniel Peretz and Yossi Sharabi were two of the deceased hostages returned on Monday, after Guy Iluz and Bipin Joshi were named yesterday.