Israeli strikes kill at least 8 people in Gaza

GAZA CITY

Palestinian residential salvage what they can from a building targeted in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza hit multiple residential buildings and killed at least eight people, authorities said on Aug. 2, despite Hamas saying it agreed to the latest stage of a deal to end the war.

Hamas said on July 31 it had agreed to a plan championed by U.S. President Donald Trump that includes provisions for handing over its weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has yet to officially comment on the agreement, but a political source has told AFP “that there will be no withdrawal whatsoever” without Hamas’s “genuine disarmament.”

Gaza civil defense officials said on Aug. 2 that eight people were killed in strikes around midnight that hit multiple residential buildings.

In one attack near the central Gaza Strip, a man and his wife were killed and several others were wounded when an Israeli military helicopter struck an apartment, a spokesman said.

An elderly man and a child were killed in another attack on an apartment west of Gaza City, and three people, including a child, were targeted when a strike hit another apartment northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Authorities reported earlier on July 31 that eight other people had been killed in strikes that damaged a hospital’s medical supplies and targeted a rooftop.

The group’s disarmament has been one of the key sticking points in the advancement of a ceasefire deal that has been in place in Gaza since October.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced late on July 30 an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government.