Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 13, including children, after Hamas disarmament deal

At least 13 people, several of them children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Sunday night, according to Palestinian officials. The attacks hit Gaza City, Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, marking the second consecutive night of Israeli military action in the territory.

The strikes come days after Hamas agreed to a US-backed disarmament plan, under which the group would surrender its weapons to the Board of Peace, a body created by US President Donald Trump. The Israeli military said it was targeting operatives involved in planning attacks against Israel, and confirmed the deaths of two Hamas commanders, including one from the elite Nukbha force and another from the Maghazi Battalion. A third militant from the Jabalia Battalion was killed last week, according to the IDF.

Palestinian health officials reported that a father, mother and their nine-year-old son were killed when a house was hit in Khan Younis. In Gaza City, two people including a child died in a strike on a residential building, while another person was killed near Jabalia. Two more people, a man and a woman, lost their lives when their apartment block was struck in Deir el-Balah.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Sunday that no agreement had been reached to halt the attacks, noting that around 70 percent of the Gaza Strip is now under Israeli control. He added that Israel may need to take full control of the territory if Hamas refuses to disarm, despite the Board of Peace proposal for an Israeli withdrawal.

The disarmament plan, which has not yet been implemented, calls for an inventory of heavy weapons, military production sites, and tunnels, and for all military hardware to be placed in storage managed by a Palestinian National Committee. This committee, made up of independent technocrats, has been operating from Cairo and has not entered Gaza. Details of how weapons would be transferred to the Board of Peace remain unclear.

According to UN estimates, the conflict has generated around 60 million tonnes of debris since October 2023. Satellite images reviewed by BBC Verify last November showed that Israel had destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in areas of Gaza it controls. The actual figure is likely to be higher. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire was supposed to take effect last October. Hamas, which the UK classifies as a terrorist organisation, has governed Gaza since 2007.