Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least four Palestinians on Monday, according to health officials, amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Cairo intended to preserve a U.S.-brokered peace plan for the enclave. The strikes occurred as mediators sought to advance talks aimed at stabilizing the fragile truce established last year.

Medical sources reported that an airstrike in the central Gaza town of Zawayda killed a woman, while another attack claimed one life in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp. Later, a strike targeting the rooftop of a building in Gaza City resulted in the deaths of a medic and his son. The Israeli military stated it had killed two Hamas operatives in separate incidents, describing them as planning imminent attacks against Israeli forces, but offered no further details.

These incidents coincided with the arrival of Nikolay Mladenov, the U.S. envoy for peace in Gaza, who flew into Cairo to continue shuttle diplomacy following Hamas's response to a 15-point proposal he had presented in recent weeks. According to sources involved in the mediation, Hamas and allied Palestinian factions accepted all elements of the plan except the disarmament of Hamas fighters. Hamas links disarmament demands to an Israeli withdrawal and broader political negotiations toward Palestinian statehood.

The current tensions underscore the impasse over implementing a truce brokered in October 2025 under the Trump administration. While the agreement reduced large-scale hostilities, it has neither halted all Israeli military actions nor secured Hamas’s disarmament. Israel and Hamas remain at odds over the sequence and conditions for the plan’s next phase, which envisions Hamas relinquishing weapons and Israel withdrawing from parts of Gaza.

Hamas leaders participating in discussions with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey in Cairo emphasized the necessity for Israel to "fully and unconditionally comply" with the ceasefire terms without fragmentation, according to a statement issued by the group. Hamas attributes the failure to reach a comprehensive ceasefire to Israel’s alleged refusal to honor its initial commitments from the October truce, which temporarily paused major fighting but did not stop ongoing Israeli strikes.

Israel maintains that its military actions are defensive measures designed to prevent planned attacks by Hamas and other groups. Since the truce took effect, Palestinian health authorities report that Israeli strikes have killed more than 990 Palestinians, while Israel says it has lost four soldiers to Hamas attacks in the same period.

The Israeli government continues to insist that Hamas must disarm completely, relinquish political control over Gaza, and be excluded from the territory’s future governance. Meanwhile, Israel maintains control over more than half of Gaza, ordering evacuations and demolishing remaining structures in the area. Approximately two million Palestinians live within the remaining territory, largely concentrated along the coastal strip in tents and damaged buildings under Hamas’s de facto administration.