Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday resulted in the deaths of at least two Palestinians and caused damage to medical supply warehouses, according to Palestinian officials. The strikes occurred despite a recent agreement reportedly reached between the Trump administration’s Board of Peace and Hamas to advance a cease-fire in the region.
One of the Israeli strikes targeted warehouses located at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza before dawn. Hospital spokesperson Khalil Dagran confirmed damage to the facility’s outpatient clinic but reported no casualties from this particular attack. The Israeli military justified the bombing by claiming that Hamas had been storing weapons in the hospital warehouses and using the site as a hideout. Dagran contested the Israeli assertion, noting that Israeli forces had provided warnings for civilians to evacuate prior to the strikes.
A second strike, carried out in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, resulted in the deaths of two Palestinians, local health officials said. The Israeli military confirmed conducting the attack but did not elaborate on the reasons behind targeting those individuals.
These strikes came days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Hamas had agreed, during negotiations mediated by the Board of Peace, to give up its weapons as part of an effort to reinforce the Gaza cease-fire. Disarmament of Hamas has long been a significant obstacle to advancing peace efforts following the initial October 2023 cease-fire.
Hamas responded on Friday, stating that the "first step" in the process would require Israel to halt its attacks. The group linked the surrender of its so-called "heavy weapons" to a series of conditions, including a phased Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and a cessation of Israeli military operations. It remains unclear whether Israel has formally accepted these terms.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the proposed agreement. A written statement from an unnamed Israeli diplomatic official reiterated that the military would not retreat from its current positions without "genuine" disarmament by Hamas. Netanyahu, facing a challenging re-election campaign later this year, may be cautious about making concessions that could be politically unpopular.
The conflict’s origins trace back to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and over 250 hostages taken. In response, Israel launched a two-year military campaign against Hamas, causing widespread destruction in Gaza and the deaths of more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. These figures include civilians and children, though the numbers of combatants were not specified.
A cease-fire brokered last October by the Trump administration was intended to halt hostilities, but sporadic Israeli strikes have continued. Since the truce, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in these strikes, including children, according to Gaza officials. Israeli forces initially withdrew to a "yellow line" as part of the cease-fire but have progressively expanded their control to encompass more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, limiting the movement and territory of its two million residents.
Both the United States and Israel maintain that Gaza’s reconstruction will be contingent upon Hamas relinquishing control and demilitarizing the enclave.