ISRAELI forces have killed at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza, despite United States President Donald Trump announcing a plan he describes as a “monumental step” towards peace and security in the shattered enclave.
The deaths on Sunday included three people killed in an air raid on a residential apartment in Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City – Abdullah Abu Taif, 33, his pregnant wife Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son Azzam – according to medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.
An attack on an apartment in Al-Qarara, northwest of the city of Khan Younis, killed three members of the Al-Hams family – father Mahmoud, 38, his wife Fatima, 37, and their young daughter. Three others were wounded, medical sources at Nasser Hospital said.
Kamu Abu Muailiq, 68, and his wife Huda, 59, were killed in an attack on their home near Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. In the same area, two brothers were killed as they were riding a motorbike.
In northern Gaza, a Palestinian was killed after being directly targeted in Jabalia refugee camp.
Later, two Palestinians, one of them a child, were killed, in an Israeli drone attack on a tent for displaced people in the Remal neighbourhood, west of Gaza City. Four others were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City.
The Israeli attacks since dawn caused the largest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack hit medicine warehouses attached to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
Gaza Health Ministry’s Director-General, Munir al-Bursh, said destroying supplies “turns medicine and illness itself into a tool of war”. The ministry reported two facilities destroyed and two severely damaged.
Reporting from the bomb site, Al Jazeera correspondent Moath al-Kahlout saw a massive crater and said the strike came just 15 minutes after an evacuation order, damaging tents where displaced people had been sheltering and triggering a new wave of displacement.
Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets over the past 48 hours, operating at low altitude without issuing prior warnings to residents, according to Al Jazeera correspondents reporting from across Gaza.
Most of the targets were residential buildings, apartments and gatherings of civilians, which Israel says are legitimate targets because they include members of Hamas or other armed groups.
“The strikes came without any warning or evacuation orders for the residents living in the targeted areas,” Al Jazeera’s Nour Khaled reported from Gaza City. “Last night was particularly difficult for Palestinians. There were a number of strikes targeting several areas across all parts of the Gaza Strip.”
On Saturday, at least eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes targeting various areas. On Friday, Palestinians were also killed in separate attacks.
This came as the Board of Peace and International Stabilization Force and US President Trump announced on Friday an agreement to implement the next phase of the Gaza “ceasefire”, with the board saying Hamas had accepted a detailed roadmap. Israel has not officially commented on the proposal.
Palestinians say Israel’s continued attacks, coupled with restrictions on humanitarian aid despite the ceasefire, have turned the truce into “an illusion” and further deepened their humanitarian crisis.
The killings this week follow a similar pattern to previous deals that existed only on paper and had no relation to the reality on the ground, such as the repeated truces in Lebanon since 2024, and last October’s ceasefire in Gaza. All have been largely ignored by Israel, which has been widely accused of deliberately sabotaging them.
Since the October 2025 ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, at least 1,222 Palestinians have been killed and 4,053 injured, according to health authorities in Gaza.
Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that Israel approaches agreements from a position of non-commitment.
“All these agreements were imposed on Israel. Israel did not want to go to settlements or agreements. They were imposed on Israel by another party, particularly the United States,” he said.
“Israel gives different interpretations to the agreement at the level of terminology and clauses,” Mustafa said. “Therefore it tends towards violating the agreement, claiming that its interpretation and approach differ from how the other party interprets it.”
US pressure remains “the only factor that can influence the Israeli position.”