ISRAEL STRIKES GAZA; AID IS HALTED

Military and Hamas each accuse the other of violating ceasefire.

- BY NABIH BULOS

GAZANS mourn Sunday as relatives killed by Israeli fire are brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah.

(ABDEL KAREEM HANA/Associated Press)

Israel launched airstrikes Sunday in Gaza after what it said was a Hamas attack on its forces, adding to the two-year-old war's death toll and rattling a delicate U.S.-brokered ceasefire that had brought a measure of relief to the beleaguered enclave.

The day descended into finger-pointing as each side accused the other of violating the pact that President Trump, just six days earlier, had said would usher in “a golden age” of peace for the Middle East.

The ceasefire compelled Israel to end its months-long blockade of the enclave, but Israel said Sunday that it once again halted aid flows, potentially plunging Gaza once more into famine even as aid groups were clamoring for additional supplies to be trucked in.

Sunday's strikes constituted the strongest challenge yet to an uneasy truce that came into place Oct. 10 after intense diplomacy and no little pressure on the belligerents — from Trump and a raft of Arabic and Islamic nations to stop fighting and bring an end to a war that has killed tens of thousands and all but flattened much of Gaza.

Live broadcasts Sunday showed plumes of smoke rising across the Gaza Strip, as Israeli warplanes hit multiple areas in Rafah, Khan Yunis and Deir al Balah, killing at least 15 people, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military said one soldier and one officer were killed.

In a statement, the Israeli military accused the militant group Hamas of firing an antitank missile at troops in southern Gaza, calling the attack “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The military added that it responded “to eliminate the threat and dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.”

Later, reports of dozens of attacks by Hamas came in from local media.