ISRAEL has violated the United States-brokered Gaza ceasefire at least 497 times in 44 days, killing hundreds of Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on 10 October, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
Some 342 civilians have been killed in the attacks, with children, women and the elderly accounting for the majority of the victims.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the continued serious and systematic violations of the ceasefire agreement by the Israeli occupation authorities,” the office said in a statement on Saturday.
“These violations constitute a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and the humanitarian protocol attached to the agreement. Among these violations, 27 occurred today, Saturday, resulting in 24 martyrs and 87 wounded,” it added.
The office also said Israel was fully responsible for the humanitarian and security repercussions from its violations.
Israel continues to heavily restrict the full and free flow of desperately needed aid and medical supplies into the devastated enclave as was mandated in the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s military launched a wave of air attacks across Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 24 Palestinians, including children, in its latest violation of a six-week-old ceasefire in the war-torn territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it launched these latest attacks after a Hamas fighter attacked Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied territory inside Gaza’s so-called yellow line.
“In response, Israel eliminated five senior Hamas [fighters],” it said in a statement.
Hamas demanded Israel reveal the identity of the fighter that allegedly attacked the Israeli forces.
Izzat al-Risheq, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, called on the mediators of the Gaza deal and the US administration to pressure Israel to back its claim and to implement the Gaza agreement.
“Israel is fabricating pretexts to evade the agreement and return to a war of extermination,” he said in a statement.
“It is Israel that violates the agreement daily and systematically.”
He also dismissed the reports that claimed Hamas had called off the ceasefire.