Israeli airstrikes ‘kill 27 Palestinians’ in one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire: ‘Where is the truce?’

Israeli airstrikes killed 27 people in Gaza on Saturday in one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire, Gaza officials have said.

The IDF claimed that it was targeting commanders and sites belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad when it struck a police station, residential homes and tent encampments across the beleaguered strip.

A fragile ceasefire has been continually undermined by violence, with more than 500 people killed in Israeli assaults since October. Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli warplanes struck the Sheikh Radwan station west of Gaza City earlier Saturday, killing ten police officers and detainees, medics and police in Gaza reported.

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Further airstrikes hit at least two houses in Gaza City and a tent encampment housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, further south, local officials said.

The strike on an apartment building in Gaza City killed three children, their aunt and their grandmother, according to Shifa Hospital.

Samer al-Atbash, uncle to the young victims, said: “We found my three little nieces in the street. They say 'ceasefire' and all. What did those children do? What did we do?”

”The three girls are gone, may God have mercy on them,” he said, adding that the family were civilians with no connection to Hamas. Names were written on body bags lined up at the foot of a wall.

Video footage from Gaza City depicted charred, blackened walls and widespread destruction at an apartment within a multi-storey building, with debris strewn both inside and on the street outside.

Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp in Khan Younis caused a fire, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

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Atallah Abu Hadaiyed said he had just finished praying when the explosion occurred.

”We came running and found my cousins lying here and there, with fire raging. We don't know if we're at war or at peace, or what. Where is the truce? Where is the ceasefire they talked about?” he said.

The Israeli military said it was responding to a breach of the US-brokered ceasefire. Hamas said that Israel had violated the truce. It did not say whether any of its members or facilities had been hit.

The IDF said that it struck weapon caches and manufacturing sites, in addition to targeting Hamas commanders.

It said the strikes were carried out in response to an incident on Friday where troops identified eight gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, where Israeli forces are deployed under the truce agreement.

Three of the gunmen were killed by the forces, and a fourth, described by the Israeli military as a Hamas commander in the area, was apprehended.

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“In response to the violation of the ceasefire agreement, in which eight terrorists were identified exiting the underground terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah, the IDF and ISA have struck four commanders and additional terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations across Gaza,” it said.

“The IDF also struck a weapons storage facility, a weapons manufacturing site, and two launch sites belonging to Hamas in central Gaza.”

The latest strikes came a day before the Rafah border crossing, connecting Gaza with Egypt, is set to reopen under a US-backed plan aimed at ending a war that has devastated much of the territory.

Hamas did not comment on the incident. Dozens of its fighters have remained trapped in tunnels under Rafah since the ceasefire, though some have since been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Both sides have exchanged accusations over truce violations, even as Washington is pressing them to advance to the next phases of the ceasefire deal, which is intended to permanently end the conflict.