Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 13 in Gaza as Netanyahu Claims Growing Control

At least 13 Palestinians were killed and more than 35 wounded in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to medical sources, as the territory’s fragile October ceasefire continued to unravel. The deadliest day in weeks came as Egypt launched fresh diplomatic efforts to salvage the truce, hosting mediators in Cairo, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel now controls 60 per cent of the enclave and is closing in on 70 per cent.

The first strike, carried out by an Israeli drone, hit a civilian jeep near the al-Buraq school in the al-Nasr neighbourhood northwest of Gaza City. The Hamas-run civil defence agency said four people, including a woman, were killed and the vehicle completely destroyed by two missiles. Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the bodies and treating several wounded, some in critical condition. A few hours later, an airstrike targeted a Hamas police post adjacent to a large tent camp housing displaced families in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. That attack killed five and wounded at least 17, according to local health officials. Medics at Nasser Hospital said some of the injured were “critical”. The police station hit was part of a network that Israel has systematically targeted in recent months, with Hamas security officials reporting dozens of officers killed.

The violence underscored the near-total collapse of the truce brokered in October 2025, which paused major combat but never evolved into a permanent ceasefire. Both sides have since traded daily accusations of violations. In a cabinet address on Sunday, Netanyahu framed the operations as an essential part of a wider anti-terror campaign, citing an attack that morning in the West Bank settlement of Kochav Yair where an assailant killed an Israeli and wounded others before being shot dead. The prime minister’s territorial claim — that the military now “controls more than 60 per cent of the area of the Gaza Strip” and is “tightening the noose on Hamas from all directions” — was read by analysts in Arab capitals and European foreign ministries as a signal that Israel aims to retain long-term security buffers, making a negotiated two-state solution ever more remote.

Egypt, the primary mediator alongside Qatar and the United States, convened the Cairo talks over the weekend to explore ways to halt the back-and-forth violence. But with Hamas demanding a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to the blockade, and Israel insisting on indefinite security control, the diplomatic chasm remains vast. Observers in London warn that without a credible political horizon, the conflict risks hardening into a permanent low-intensity war punctuated by escalations like Sunday’s, further gutting Gaza’s infrastructure and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe.