Israel on Wednesday carried out its first air strike in more than a week in Gaza, both sides said, breaking a relative lull as the United States pressed a peace plan. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander, charging that he had been planning attacks against Israeli forces operating in the war-battered territory. "The terrorist was struck in an aerial strike in order to remove the threat to Israeli troops," a military statement said, adding that it tried to mitigate civilian harm. Gaza's civil defense agency, a rescue service under Hamas, said the strike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip targeted civilians riding in a tuk-tuk. The strike killed Mohanad Saada, whose body was "torn to pieces", and wounded five other people, according to the civil defense agency and Al-Shifa Hospital. A witness said Saada was among a group of workers who were repairing a wall damaged by Israeli shelling. "It is true that Israeli airstrikes and assassinations had almost completely ceased for over a week, but today the occupation resumed its aerial bombardment," civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP. Israel had not carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since August 3, following US President Donald Trump's announcement of a "major milestone" in his plan to end the war. Hamas had announced that it would disarm by giving its weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee. Trump's Board of Peace, in charge of implementing the ceasefire deal, had initially announced that Israel in turn would start a phased withdrawal from much of the Gaza Strip. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday publicly rejected the deal and vowed no Israeli pullout, even after the Board of Peace reassured him that Israel would not have to withdraw until complete Hamas disarmament. Despite the statements by Netanyahu, who faces pushback from his right-wing base on Gaza ahead of tight elections in October, Israel had been seen as largely complying with the Trump plan by avoiding major strikes. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire pushed by Trump in October, after which Israel reduced but did not end military operations. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,259 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.
