Even as Palestinian negotiators gathered in Cairo to salvage the remnants of a US‑brokered truce, Israeli warplanes struck a large tent encampment in the heart of Gaza City on Saturday, killing at least seven Palestinians, including two women. The victims were not combatants.
In the Al‑Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, a woman was killed and 16 others wounded when Israeli artillery directly targeted tents housing thousands of displaced people. A drone strike at the Al‑Sha’biya intersection in Gaza City left another dead and several wounded. They were attacks on shelters, on intersections, on the daily life of a starving population. And they happened on the very day that the world’s mediators were trying to talk about peace.
A senior Hamas delegation, headed by the movement’s Gaza leader and chief negotiator Khalil al‑Hayya, arrived in Cairo on Friday for what was supposed to be a decisive round of negotiations. The talks, which began on Saturday, brought together mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, alongside representatives of other Palestinian factions. The stated goals were straightforward: complete the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement and establish mechanisms for moving into the second phase. In a video statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem laid out the movement’s position. The meetings would focus on ensuring the full implementation of the first phase, including ending Israeli violations, reopening border crossings and allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The discussions would also address proposals concerning the deployment of international forces in Gaza and the disarmament of Palestinian factions, issues that lie at the heart of the stalled second phase.
But the context of these talks could not be grimmer. The ceasefire, brokered by US President Donald Trump in October 2025, was meant to end two years of full scale hostilities. It brought about the release of the remaining Israeli hostages and a prisoner exchange. Yet, for the people of Gaza, the “ceasefire” has been a semantic fiction. Israel has used it as cover to entrench its occupation, expand its military control and continue its daily killing with impunity. The first phase of the agreement, supposed to be a definitive halt to violence has been violated nearly 1,300 times in a 100‑day period alone, according to Gaza authorities. As of the end of May, more than 3,000 separate Israeli violations had been documented since the truce took effect.
The numbers are no longer deniable. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations, at least 947 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. That is nearly one thousand people killed in peacetime. The wounded number more than 2,935. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinians killed since the ceasefire took effect has risen to 947 deaths, while the total number of violations has reached 3,076 over 232 days. Daily artillery shelling across eastern Gaza, drone strikes targeting civilians at fishing ports and refugee camps, demolition operations of homes east of Gaza City, and naval gunfire off the coasts of Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Israeli Apache helicopters have targeted groups of civilians inside the grounds of Gaza City’s fishing port. Military vehicles have opened fire in eastern and central Khan Yunis. And the Rafah border crossing, the only lifeline for the sick and wounded to leave the territory has been kept closed by Israeli decree, reducing aid flows to a trickle and trapping tens of thousands of patients who urgently need treatment abroad.
The Israeli military claims its strikes target “imminent threats” or “suspicious individuals”. After the massacre of seven people in the tent encampment, a spokesperson said the strike targeted “terrorists”, but provided no evidence. This is the same pattern repeated daily: a strike, a denial of targeting civilians, a refusal to produce evidence, and a media cycle that moves on. The reality is that Israel has expanded its military control to over 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, in direct defiance of the ceasefire’s terms. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that the Rafah crossing will remain closed “until further notice”, citing Hamas’s failure to return the bodies of deceased hostages, a demand that was not part of the original agreement. The crossing has been shut since Israeli forces seized its Palestinian side in early May, and Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel, preferring to work through international bodies. The result is that the wounded cannot leave, the sick cannot access treatment, and the dead cannot be recovered with dignity.
The ceasefire agreement included clear provisions for humanitarian access. Under the terms of the deal, 139,200 aid trucks were expected to have entered Gaza by the end of May. The actual number was 50,636; just 36 percent of what was promised. Only 5,836 people have been permitted to leave Gaza for medical treatment, out of 17,800 expected under the deal. That is a compliance rate of roughly 32 percent. Food, medicine, fuel and reconstruction materials are being blocked at the border, while Israeli officials blame Hamas for the delays. The world’s aid agencies have warned of imminent famine, but the crossings remain sealed. The Gaza authorities have accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon”, a charge that has been echoed by UN human rights officials.
The human suffering is compounded by the psychological terror of living under constant attack. Displaced families, already uprooted multiple times, have been forced to flee again as Israeli forces demolish entire neighbourhoods east of Gaza City. In the Al‑Mawasi area, a designated “safe zone”, artillery shells rained down on tents, killing a woman and wounding 16 others. There is no safety in Gaza. There is only the slow, grinding attrition of a population that has been told to “move south”, then “move north”, then “move to the coast”, then “evacuate immediately”. Each time, the bombs follow.
The Cairo talks are also attempting to address the second phase of the agreement, which has been stalled for months. Under Trump’s 20‑point plan, the second phase was supposed to include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the deployment of an international stabilization force, and crucially, the disarmament of Palestinian factions. Hamas has consistently stated that it is not opposed to partial disarmament, but it refuses to accept conditions imposed by the occupation. “The resistance factions will not accept disarmament under conditions imposed by the occupation,” a second Hamas official told AFP. The movement has instead called for a “technical committee” to manage Gaza’s reconstruction, separate from any political preconditions.
The Israeli position, articulated by Netanyahu in an interview with CNBC, is that Hamas must disarm entirely. “Hamas has to disarm. That’s President Trump’s plan,” he said, adding that Israel would ensure no weapons are smuggled into the territory. But Netanyahu’s actions contradict his words. While demanding disarmament, Israeli forces are simultaneously expanding their military control, demolishing homes and assassinating political leaders. Mohammed Odeh, the latest head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli strike last week, just a month after his predecessor was also assassinated.
The Cairo talks are expected to last for several days, but the prospects for a genuine breakthrough are remote. Hamas has said that no progress is possible unless Israel ends its attacks, reopens the crossings and withdraws to the ceasefire lines. The movement has been in daily contact with mediators and has underlined that ending Israeli attacks in Gaza is essential for any progress. Yet, as of Saturday, the strikes have continued. The tent encampment massacre occurred while the negotiators were meeting. The artillery shelling of Khan Yunis continued as mediators shuttled between delegations.