• Israel halts all aid convoys into the territory; vital Rafah crossing still closed
• More than 100 air strikes bombard refugee camps, residential areas
• Netanyahu under political pressure to resume deadly assault
• Hamas rejects Israeli claims of ‘ceasefire violation’; says Tel Aviv using ‘flimsy pretexts’ to justify deadly attacks

JERUSALEM: Israel blatantly violated the Gaza ceasefire agreement on Sunday, launching deadly strikes, which claimed the lives of at least 33 people.

More than 100 air strikes were reported in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north, and other parts of central Gaza.

Sources at the Al Awda Hospital told Al Jazeera that three Palestinians were killed and others were wounded in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Earlier, the Wafa news agency reported that at least two Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli air attack in northern Gaza.

Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, as Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in Nablus before dragging his body through the streets.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victim as 42-year-old Majed Mohammad Dawoud, who was killed during a raid on the al-Ain refugee camp.

Witnesses said Dawoud was left bleeding in the street as Israeli forces prevented medical teams from reaching him.

Ghassan Hamdan, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Nablus, said soldiers stripped Dawoud of his clothes and dragged his body along the road as he bled to death.

Reports of settlers assaulting olive pickers elsewhere in the occupied West Bank also emerged.

Israel’s ceasefire violations

While Israel accuses Hamas of initiating the hostilities with an attack on its forces in Rafah, a claim that could not be independently verified, the group has denied any knowledge or connection to the incident to take “strong action against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip”, with Israel’s national security minister and right-wing firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir urged the army to “fully resume fighting in the Strip with all force.”

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, reaffirmed the group’s commitment to the ceasefire and said Israel “continues to breach the agreement and fabricate flimsy pretexts to justify its crimes.”

Pressure on Netanyahu

The assault comes as intense pressure is being applied on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel’s political elite to resume the war. The pretext for the strikes was what Israel claimed was a ceasefire violation by Hamas, a charge the Palestinian group has firmly rejected, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli political figures consistently echoed the call for renewed conflict.

Opposition leader Benny Gantz, a former member of Israel’s security council, said all options should remain on the table for Israel, “including a return to military manoeuvring.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s rival, claimed Hamas had retaken control of Gaza, adding the group “must be destroyed.”

Aid halted, Rafah still closed

In a move choking off the enclave’s main lifeline, an Israeli security official told AFP on Sunday that all crossing points into Gaza for aid convoys have been closed. “The transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip has been halted until further notice,” the Israeli official said.

Another major point of contention between two parties is the opening of the Rafah crossing.

Israel has linked the reopening of the main gateway to the recovery of all deceased prisoners, delayed the opening , which is a condition under peace plan, several times in last few days and says Hamas is being too slow in handing over bodies of deceased prisoners.

However, Hamas has stated that many bodies are buried deep under rubble from Israeli bombardment, and recovery is impossible without heavy machinery.

The group says it is using its limited resources to find the bodies instead of rebuilding destroyed Palestinian homes.

Hamas warned late on Saturday that the closure of the crossing would cause “significant delays in the retrieval and transfer of remains.”

Also, the group says it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining prisoners and that special equipment is needed to recover corpses buried under rubble.

The Rafah crossing has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.

The crossing has in previous ceasefires functioned as a key conduit for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.

Although the flow of supplies through another crossing had, until Sunday’s decision to halt aid, increased significantly since the ceasefire began, the United Nations says far more is needed.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025