• Netanyahu warns of ‘retaliation’ after explosion injures soldier
• Hamas blames bombs left behind by Tel Aviv forces for blast

JERUSALEM/ANKARA: Isra­eli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused Hamas of violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a military officer was wounded by an explosive device in Rafah and Israel vowed retaliation.

His office said in a statement that Hamas must fully uphold the October agreement, noting that it envisaged the group being removed from power in Gaza as well as “demilitarisation and deradicalisation” of the territory. “Israel will respond accordingly,” the statement added.

The Israeli military earlier said that an explosive device had detonated against a military vehicle in the southern Rafah area of Gaza and that one officer had been lightly injured.

However, Hamas denied responsibility for Rafah blast, saying that the explosion was in area under Israeli control. The blast was “caused by bombs left behind by the enemy that had not exploded previously, and we have informed the mediators of this,” Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi wrote on X.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had identified a Hamas financial official it killed two weeks ago in a strike in the Gaza Strip.

Abdel Hay Zaqut, a financial official in Hamas’s armed wing, died on Dec 13 in the same strike that killed military commander Raed Saad, seen by Israel as one of the architects of Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack.

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said Zaqut was killed while he was in a vehicle alongside Raed Saad in “a joint operation by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet”, Israel’s internal security agency. Zaqut “belonged to the financial department of the armed wing” of Hamas, Adraee wrote on X.

Hamas’s leader for the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, confirmed on Dec 14 the death of Raed Saad and “his companions”, though he did not name Zaqut.

‘Second phase’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday met with Hamas political bureau officials in Ankara to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and advancing the agreement to its second phase, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

The source said the Hamas officials told Fidan that they had fulfilled their requirements as part of the ceasefire deal, but that Israel’s continued targeting of Gaza aimed to prevent the agreement from moving to the next phase.

The Hamas members also said humanitarian aid entering Gaza was not sufficient, and that goods like medication, equipment for housing, and fuel were needed, the source added.

Violence has subsided but not stopped since the Gaza truce took effect on Oct 10, and the sides have regularly accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Since October 2023, millions of Palestinians have been displaced and tens of thousands killed in Israeli strikes. Gaza’s health ministry says Israel has killed more than 400 people in the territory within the last couple of months despite the ceasefire that came into effect.

A 20-point plan issued by US President Donald Trump in September calls for an initial truce followed by steps towards a wider peace. It ultimately calls for Hamas to disarm and have no governing role in Gaza and for Israel to pull out of the territory, which remains in ruins after two years of war.

The sides have not fully agreed to everything in it. Hamas has said it will only hand over its arms if a Palestinian state is established.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2025