At least 3 people have died in an Israeli strike in Gaza as negotiations for a ceasefire are underway
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An Israeli airstrike killed at least three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, as mediators met with Hamas leaders in an effort to secure a US-brokered ceasefire.
Doctors said the strike hit a group of men outside a school in Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the bodies of the dead lay on the ground in white clothes outside the morgue when relatives and friends came to say goodbye. Others kiss the victims on the forehead before they perform special prayers.
“This is not an agreement; it is a trap for our servants. Every day for martyrs, every day. How long will it continue?” said Umm Hussam Abu El-Rous, a relative of one of the victims.
“Isn’t it fair that a three-year-old child is afraid to see his own [dead] father? He said, ‘Dad went to get me something from the store,” he added.
Where does the Israel-Hamas ceasefire stand?
Since October 9, 2025, when the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect, the Israeli attack on Gaza has not stopped in the area.
The deal, which was intended to end a two-year-long war in Gaza, left the Israeli army in control of a no-man’s land marked by yellow-painted blocks covering nearly half of Gaza, with Hamas holding a small coastal strip and Israeli airstrikes continuing.
More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since the agreement went into effect, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and the military killed four Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli authorities. Israel and Hamas have traded ceasefire violations.
Palestinians say Israeli forces have been moving more yellow concrete markers westward. Israel denies this.
Six months after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, deadly Israeli airstrikes have killed hundreds, while food shortages are causing widespread hunger and disease.
This violence arose when the leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups met from Saturday in Cairo with negotiators from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to discuss the implementation of the second phase of the Gaza agreement.
Under the plan put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Peace Council, Hamas will be required to lay down its arms in stages over eight months after a US-backed committee of Palestinian experts takes control of Gaza.
However, the disarmament of Hamas has been a major obstacle to progress in Trump’s cease-fire agreement and the Gaza Strip, which has also been strained by the Iran war.
Two officials close to the latest talks say Hamas has told negotiators that ceasefire talks can move forward only after Israel fully implements the first phase of Trump’s October deal, which includes a complete ceasefire in Gaza.
Israeli military officials have said they are preparing to quickly return to full-scale war if Hamas does not lay down its arms.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, with a Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s two-year campaign that followed killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities, and left the area in ruins.
