Israeli strikes kill 18 in Gaza, minister says no deal to halt attacks
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Steven Scheer
CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year's ceasefire agreement.
From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Younis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.
Trump's assertion on Thursday that Palestinian Hamas militants and other armed groups had agreed to disarm had raised hopes of a turning point in efforts to end the conflict.
On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen — a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet — said the government would give Hamas the opportunity to disarm but that he was "very sceptical" that would happen.
Cohen told Israel's Army Radio there had been no deal to halt attacks on Gaza and that he saw a need for Israel, which already controls 70% of the enclave, to take full control of it if Hamas did not disarm.
"In the deal we signed with the United States, our stance is that Hamas must be dismantled. This is the first thing that must happen," he added.
Later on Sunday, a spokesperson for Netanyahu's office told Reuters that Israel expressed concerns to the U.S. on the disarmament plan.
"The most important concern for Israel is that nothing can happen before Hamas completely and truly disarms ...," Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, said.
ATTACKS HIT GAZA TENTS, APARTMENT AND HOUSE, MEDICS SAY
Strikes on Deir al-Balah killed at least four people, Palestinian health officials said, and a separate attack wounded five people and set some tents ablaze in Mawasi, near Khan Younis, according to the civil emergency service.
A couple and their 9-year-old son were killed in a strike on a house in Mawasi, Palestinian officials said.
Another couple was killed with their child in a strike on an apartment in Gaza City, where two more people died in a strike on a tent near the office of the Egyptian representative mission, medics said. Later on Sunday, another two people were killed in the city's eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood, they added.
One person was killed near Jabalia in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military said a strike on an apartment in Deir al-Balah was targeting two commanders of Hamas' elite "Nukhba" force.
The Gaza City and Jabalia strikes also targeted "military operatives" but the military was still reviewing the situation, it added.
In a subsequent attack on Gaza City, medics said an Israeli airstrike on a car killed at least three Palestinians near Saraya Square.
Trump's Board of Peace, the U.S.-led body overseeing the ceasefire, published on Friday a 15-point roadmap setting out the final steps for implementing the agreement.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's lead envoy for Gaza, said the strikes across Gaza came despite efforts by the board and mediators to bring Palestinian factions to agree on the roadmap for the implementation of Trump's plan.
He said in a post on X that he was working with parties, mediators and regional partners to "de-escalate and create the space for the full implementation of the President's plan".
"Achieving a lasting peace is hard but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts," Mladenov said.
At least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to Gaza health authorities. Hamas does not disclose figures on its war dead.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed over the same period, according to Israeli tallies.
HAMAS SAYS IT HAS SHOWN FLEXIBILITY
Hamas has said Israel must stop its attacks in Gaza and pull its troops back, in accordance with other key terms of the ceasefire deal, before it will agree to hand over weapons to a new Palestinian body named to run Gaza.
A senior Hamas official said on Sunday the group had demonstrated "considerable flexibility", but accused Israel of wanting to impose a de facto situation on the ground by intensifying its strikes.
"This escalation, coinciding with progress on the political track, clearly demonstrates that the occupation government is seeking to undermine efforts aimed at ending the war and to impose facts on the ground by force," Basem Naim said in a statement.
Former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, said in a Facebook post that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a senior adviser involved in the U.S. initiative, had told him he was working with the Israeli side to stop attacks on Gaza.
Dahlan said contacts with the U.S. were continuing to ensure the agreement was fully implemented, adding that its success now depended on Israel fully ending its daily attacks on Gaza.
Reuters has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment on Dahlan's remarks. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Hatem Maher in Cairo and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Writing by James Mackenzie and Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Rod Nickel, Alex Richardson, Andrew Heavens and Edmund Klamann)
