Israel continues strikes on Gaza after Wednesday's bloodbath

Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a day after waves of strikes killed 27 people, with Hamas saying the new Israeli offensive aims to prevent the rollout of the next stage of a ceasefire.

This week has reportedly been the most deadly for civilians in the territory since a ceasefire went into effect last October, with artillery and air strikes targeting various parts of Gaza, including refugee camps.

One person was killed near Khan Younis in the south of the devastated territory on Thursday amid reports that Israel was preparing for a renewed offensive against the territory.

The Nasser Medical Centre said that the victim was killed by Israeli gunfire in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, while a woman was also wounded after being shot by the Israeli army in her tent in the centre of Khan Younis.

Israeli airstrikes also hit east of Khan Younis, areas near Gaza City and Deir al-Balah on Thursday.

Hamas on Wednesday accused Israel of deliberately trying to sabotage the Gaza ceasefire deal, saying on Telegram that its deadly strikes revealed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s "hidden intentions to disrupt the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, especially the opening of the Rafah crossing".

Israel claimed that the strikes, which killed dozens of Gazans, were in response to Hamas fire that wounded an Israeli officer although the group called this a “false pretext”.

On Wednesday, the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement that Israeli forces had violated the ceasefire a total of 1,520 times since it came into effect on October 10 last year, killing at least 556 Palestinians and injuring 1,500 more. It stressed that 99 percent of the victims were civilians, with the majority being children, women, and elderly people.

Regarding aid, the statement said that only 29,603 aid, commercial, and fuel trucks entered Gaza out of a planned 69,000 - only 43 percent of the stipulated supply. Only 14 percent of the fuel stipulated in the agreement has been provided to the people of the enclave.

The humanitarian protocol of the Gaza ceasefire said that 600 trucks per day, including 50 fuel trucks, must enter the Gaza Strip - the bare minimum required for the devastated territory’s 2.3 million inhabitants.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel is preparing for the possibility of renewed fighting in Gaza, claiming that Hamas was rebuilding its strength and was preparing to attack the Israeli officers.

It quoted senior Israeli officers as saying that sporadic military operations will become the norm in Gaza in the coming years, in an alleged effort to undermine Hamas’s ability to rebuild its capacity, amid the group’s unwillingness to give up its weapons.

This, however, raises increased fears for Gaza’s civilian population, who have already lived through two years of genocidal war by Israel.

The Israeli Shin Bet security service warned Israeli politicians in closed meetings over the past month that Hamas is regaining military strength, including the ability to produce rockets, explosive devices, and other weapons, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

Over 72,000 Palestinians were killed, and more than 171,000 injured, over two years of genocidal Israeli war on Gaza.