Israel carried out its heaviest airstrikes on Gaza in weeks on Saturday, killing 27 people including several children, according to Palestinian health officials.
The IDF claimed that it was targeting commanders and sites belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad when it struck a police station, residential homes and tent encampments across the strip.
Israeli warplanes struck the Sheikh Radwan station west of Gaza City, killing ten police officers and detainees, medics and police in Gaza reported.
Further airstrikes hit at least two houses in Gaza City and a tent encampment housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, further south, local officials said.
The strike on an apartment building in Gaza City killed three children, their aunt and their grandmother, according to Shifa Hospital.
Samer al-Atbash, uncle to the three children, said: “We found my three little nieces in the street. They say ‘ceasefire’ and all. What did those children do? What did we do?”
“The three girls are gone, may God have mercy on them,” he said, adding that the family were civilians with no connection to Hamas. Names were written on body bags lined up at the foot of a wall.
Video footage from Gaza City depicted charred, blackened walls and widespread destruction at an apartment within a multi-storey building, with debris strewn both inside and on the street outside.
Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp in Khan Younis caused a fire, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.
Atallah Abu Hadaiyed said he had just finished praying when the explosion struck.
“We came running and found my cousins lying here and there, with fire raging. We don’t know if we’re at war or at peace, or what. Where is the truce? Where is the ceasefire they talked about?” he said.
The Israeli military said it was responding to a breach of the US-brokered ceasefire. Hamas said that Israel had violated the truce. It did not say whether any of its members or facilities had been hit.
The IDF said that, in addition to targeting Hamas commanders, it also struck weapon caches and manufacturing sites.
It said the strikes were carried out in response to an incident on Friday where troops identified eight gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, where Israeli forces are deployed under the truce agreement.
Three of the gunmen were killed by the forces, and a fourth, described by the Israeli military as a Hamas commander in the area, was apprehended.
The fresh assault in Gaza occurred a day before the Rafah border crossing, connecting the strip with Egypt, is set to reopen under a US-backed plan aimed at ending a war that has devastated much of the territory.
Hamas did not comment on the incident. Dozens of its fighters have remained trapped in tunnels under Rafah since the ceasefire, though some have since been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
The ceasefire has been repeatedly undermined by violence. Israeli fire has claimed the lives of over 500 people, predominantly civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers, Israeli authorities have reported.
Both sides have exchanged accusations over truce violations, even as Washington is pressing them to advance to the next phases of the ceasefire deal, which is intended to permanently end the conflict.
The next phase of the US-backed Gaza plan includes complex issues such as the disarmament of Hamas, a demand the group has consistently rejected, further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Reuters reported on Monday that Hamas is seeking to integrate its 10,000 police officers into the proposed new US-backed Palestinian administration for Gaza, a demand likely to face opposition from Israel.
