At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike Monday for allegedly crossing the cease-fire line near central Gaza’s Morag corridor, hospital officials said.
Israel’s military claimed that the three approached troops and posed an immediate threat. The strike came as Gaza awaits an expected announcement this week of a "Board of Peace” to oversee its governance.
Palestinian resistance group Hamas has said it will dissolve its existing government once the new committee takes over the territory, as mandated under the U.S.-brokered peace plan.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that more than 440 people have been killed since Israel agreed with Hamas to suspend its two-year genocidal war.
Since then, each side has accused the other of violating the cease-fire, which remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s military controls a buffer zone that covers more than half of Gaza, while the Hamas-run government retains authority over the rest.
Throughout the war, Israel has supported anti-Hamas groups, including an armed group in southern Gaza that killed a senior police officer in Khan Younis on Monday.
Lt. Col. Mahmoud al-Astal was gunned down in the Muwasi area, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier Sunday, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Kassem, in a post on Telegram, called for a speeding up of the establishment of the Palestinian technocratic committee set to govern Gaza.
Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority have not announced the names of who will sit on the committee and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the U.S.
Officials say that Trump will announce his appointments to the Board of Peace in the coming days.
Under Trump’s plan, the board would supervise the new Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts so far.
According to Turkish officials, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan participated on Monday in a video conference with the U.S. and others meeting to discuss "preparations for the second stage" of the cease-fire agreement. The talks, held as a continuation of a meeting in Miami at the end of December, also included officials from Egypt and Qatar.
Dozens of Palestinians, including medical workers, held a protest in Gaza City on Monday to demand the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners still being held in Israeli prisons.
The protest was organized by the Palestinian Prisoners Committee outside the building of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, groups that advocate for Palestinian prisoners said that Israeli authorities have confirmed the death of a detainee from Gaza.
In a statement Sunday, the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said that Hamza Abdullah Abdelhadi Adwan died in prison on Sept. 9, based on information the family received from the Israeli military. Israeli military officials said Monday that its police force will investigate and send their findings to the military prosecutor’s office for review.
Adwan, 67, a father of nine with serious health problems, had been detained at a checkpoint on Nov. 12, 2024. Two of his children were killed in the Gaza war.
Since the start of the war, 87 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons – including 51 from Gaza – according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.
They said that more than 100 detainees – some not yet identified – had died of torture, starvation, medical neglect, and abuse.
