Israel military fired across the ceasefire line in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, December 19, killing five Palestinians, violating the US-brokered ceasefire again, news reports said.
“The deaths occurred in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City,” Rami Mhanna, managing director of Al-Shifa Hospital, told Saudi Gazzette.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its forces identified “a number of suspicious individuals” west of the Yellow Line — the demarcation separating Israeli-held areas from the rest of Gaza — and began firing. The incident was being review, the IDF said, added that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.”
The Yellow Line was established under the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in October after two years of Israel’s onslaught on Palestine. Despite largely holding for months, the truce has slowed amid mutual accusations of violations.
Also on Friday, a US official said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff planned to host senior officials from countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire in Florida, in an effort to push negotiations into a far more complex second phase.
The first phase began in October, shortly after the two-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and the subsequent Israeli genocide in Palestinians. All but one of the 251 hostages taken that day have since been released, alive or dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 70,660 Palestinians, roughly half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants but is widely regarded by international observers as maintaining reliable records.
While the ceasefire has reduced large-scale fighting, progress toward a second phase remains uncertain.
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