Ceasefire shaken after fighting over weekendpublished at 15:55 BST
Image source, ReutersAs we mentioned, violence flared up in the Strip on Sunday, raising concerns that the ceasefire could collapse.
This is expected to be a key topic in talks between US delegates and Israeli officials, so let’s take a closer look at what happened.
It began on Sunday, when Israel accused Hamas of carrying out an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in south Gaza. Hamas said it was “unaware” of any clashes in the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in response to what he called a “blatant” breach of the ceasefire by Hamas.
“One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace,” he said. “You make peace with the strong, not the weak.”
Gaza hospitals said at least 45 Palestinians were killed in the bombing campaign. Israel later said it had started the “renewed enforcement of the ceasefire”.
Afterwards, Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, insisted his group and other Palestinian factions were committed to the ceasefire deal and “determined to fully implement it until the end”.
“What we heard from the mediators and the US president reassures us that the war in Gaza is over,” he told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News TV.
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