Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli strikes hit the area of Beit Lahiya in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on March 15, killing nine people, including journalists.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed in a statement that it identified “two terrorists operating a drone that posed a threat” to Israeli troops in the area.
The two operatives were targeted in a strike, and a short while later, “a number of additional terrorists collected the drone operating equipment and entered a vehicle,” the military said, adding that the group of operatives that had collected the equipment was targeted in a second strike.
Citing the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center, the Shehab news agency said that three journalists were among nine killed by the strikes. One was named by Palestinian reports as Mahmoud Isleem, a photographer who has done work for the Anadolu agency.
After the deadly strikes, Hamas accuses Israel of a “blatant violation” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which was brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
“The occupation [Israel] has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
The strikes came amid tense talks between Israel and Hamas over the second phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that came into effect last January.
A Hamas spokesman said on March 15 that “the ball is in Israel’s court” after the group offered to release an Israeli-U.S. hostage and return the bodies of four others as part of the ongoing talks
“We want to solidify the ceasefire agreement and force [Israel] to implement its terms,” Abdul Latif al-Qanou told AFP, accusing Israel of “delaying” its enforcement.
Following the offer on March 14, Israel said that Hamas had “not budged a millimeter” in response to a proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy that Israel has accepted.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff also rejected Hamas offer, indicating it was disingenuous: Rather than accepting his own “bridge proposal,” Witkoff said in a statement, “unfortunately, Hamas has chosen to respond by publicly claiming flexibility while privately making demands that are entirely impractical without a permanent ceasefire.”
While the ceasefire is not expected to collapse any time soon, the war in Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 48,000 Palestinians, is still far from being over.
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lmagine the outrage from the western presstitute media if hamas had just killed some shlomos.
remember the “axis of resistance”…?…heheheh
the jewsa and the jewu are falling apart. soon shlomo will have nobody left to leech off.
damn the israelis are literally slaughtering the palestinians like cattle! never in my life, have i seen people die in such horrific ways, and on the scale of the current gaza war. israel literally cleaned the entire region of all its enemies, and solidified its position as the sole superpower of the region. even iran is seeking peace with the israelis. 2025 and onwards will be the golden years of the israeli empire.
the muslims are still a very divided people. sunni vs shite vs alawites. so many other sects. yet they are all brown and live in the region. why not unite?
sorry, reply “c” worded yet again. sf is like the bbc.
the middle east will be a better place for the indigegenous people (the thieving and murdering jews are not part of that group) so kick the 4 or 5 million jews into orbit never to return!
there is a hive, some three hundred light years away, that is the epicenter of their universe. some of their dark ages back-in-black voodoo peddlers preach this.