The top US envoys to the Middle East conflict arrived in Israel on Monday to inspect progress on the Gaza plan after Israel's attacks threatened to wreck the fragile ceasefire.
Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing in to Gaza for aid shipments, a security official and a humanitarian source said, after it was closed briefly on Sunday.
Israel on Sunday launched several attacks on Gaza, in clear violation of the ceasefire deal, kiling at least 45 Palestinians, including children. Journalists and medical professionals were among those killed in the attacks. Israel also blocked the entry of humanitarian assistance into the famine-struck enclave.
Six people were killed when Israeli forces targeted a displaced people’s tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Six others were killed in an attack on a group of civilians in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.
Israel said the attacks were in response to Hamas killing its soldiers and violating the ceasefire. However, acording to Al Jazeera, Trump administration officials said that the killing of two Israeli soldiers was the result of an Israeli bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance.
According to Gaza's media office, Israel has committed up to 80 violations since the US-brokered ceasefire with Hamas came into effect on October 10. At least 97 Palestinians have been killed and over 230 wounded in these attacks.
However, Israel on Sunday insisted that it remained committed to the ceasefire and US President Donald Trump, who helped broker the deal, told reporters in Washington that as far as he was concerned, it was still in effect.
Hamas meets with truce mediators in Cairo
A Hamas delegation was to meet Qatari and Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday to discuss the continuation of the Gaza ceasefire, a source close to negotiations told AFP.
The source said that the delegation, headed by Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, would discuss "the dozens of airstrikes that killed dozens in the Gaza Strip" on Sunday.
Hamas' delegation will also meet Egyptian officials to discuss an upcoming intra-Palestinian dialogue hosted by Egypt and aiming "to unify the Palestinian factions," the source told AFP.
Egypt has hosted several such meetings between Palestinian factions, notably including the two main rival political movements, Islamist movement Hamas and Fatah, whose leader Mahmud Abbas is also president of the Palestinian Authority.
"The dialogue aims to unify the Palestinian factions and discuss key issues, including the future of the Gaza Strip and the formation of the independent committee of experts that will assume management of the Strip," the source said.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire deal an independent transitional authority, run by technocrats, has been proposed to administer Gaza.
Hamas said it did not wish to govern Gaza, but its forces have moved back into areas from which Israel has withdrawn since the ceasefire.
Several Palestinian political officials recently raised the possibility of a group of unaffiliated Palestinian managers to run the Palestinian territory.
Another informed source told AFP that "mediators' contacts and efforts succeeded last night in restoring calm and implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza."
