Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent raids on the eastern areas of Gaza City on Friday night, hours after the Israeli occupation army threatened to launch a large-scale attack.
Three Palestinians were killed and others wounded on Saturday in a series of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeting various areas of the Gaza Strip. Hamas announced it was sending a high-level delegation to Cairo to discuss truce efforts with Egyptian officials.
The Civil Defense Directorate said two of the martyrs were killed in an airstrike targeting the Kahil family's home in the al-Tuffah neighborhood, northeast of Gaza City, while a third was killed in an airstrike that hit a tent for displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis, according to a medical source.
Israeli warplanes launched a series of heavy airstrikes on the eastern areas of Gaza City on Friday night, hours after the Israeli occupation forces threatened to launch a large-scale offensive. Meanwhile, artillery continued its heavy bombardment of areas north of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the northern governorate, along with artillery shelling targeting northern Rafah, where occupation forces continue to demolish buildings.
Turning water into a tool of genocide
In a related development, the government media office in Gaza warned on Saturday that Israel has turned water into a tool of genocide and a weapon of slow murder for more than 2.4 million Palestinians in the Strip.
In a statement, he said, "Israel continues to deliberately deprive the population of the minimum amount of water necessary for survival by systematically targeting water infrastructure, halting supply lines, destroying water stations and wells, and cutting off electricity and fuel needed to operate water and sanitation facilities."
The government office confirmed that Israel recently disrupted two Mekorot water lines that run to eastern Gaza City and the central governorate, providing more than 35,000 cubic meters of water daily to over 700,000 Palestinians.
He explained that Israel had previously cut off "the power line that supplies the desalination plant in the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, leading to a complete halt in desalinated water production, exposing the lives of 800,000 citizens in the central and Khan Yunis governorates to the risk of severe thirst."
He noted that since October 7, 2023, Israel has destroyed more than 90% of the water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza. It has also prevented technical crews from reaching Gaza to repair damaged infrastructure, targeted workers while carrying out their humanitarian missions, and prevented the entry of fuel needed to operate wells and desalination plants, given the power outages that have plagued the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the genocide.
For her part, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, described the situation in the Gaza Strip as "hell on earth," warning that medical supplies at the ICRC's field hospital would run out within two weeks if no new aid arrived.
"There is no electricity, no water, no food in most areas," she added from Geneva, noting that humanitarian aid has not entered for more than six weeks.
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative in the Palestinian territories, said that only 22 of 36 hospitals are still operating, but they are barely able to provide basic services, amid a severe shortage of antibiotics and blood bags.
Hamas delegation to Cairo, Qassam Brigades bombard
Amid the ongoing escalation, an informed Hamas source told Agence France-Presse that a delegation of Hamas leaders, headed by the head of the negotiating team, Khalil al-Hayya, will travel to Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials regarding a ceasefire agreement.
The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, "We hope the meeting will achieve real progress toward ending the war, halting the aggression, and withdrawing the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip."
He explained that the movement "has not received any new proposals yet regarding a truce or prisoner exchange," stressing that "contacts with mediators are still ongoing, despite the occupation's continued obstruction of the agreement and misleading of the families of enemy prisoners."
Regarding field developments and battles, the Qassam Brigades announced in a statement on Saturday that it had targeted the Nir Yitzhak settlement, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, with short-range "Rajum" rockets, the second such operation in a week.
The Israeli occupation army said on Saturday that it intercepted three rockets fired from Gaza toward settlements adjacent to the Strip, without causing any casualties. In a statement posted on the X platform, it said that following alerts activated in open areas around Gaza, "the air force intercepted three rockets fired from the Strip without causing any casualties."
For its part, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the three rockets were fired from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip towards the settlements of Nir Yitzhak, Sufa, and Holit, adjacent to Gaza.
Since March 18, Israel has intensified its genocidal crimes in Gaza by launching violent, widespread airstrikes, most of which targeted civilians in homes and tents housing displaced persons. In early March, the first phase of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel, which took effect on January 19, 2025, concluded with Egyptian and Qatari mediation and American support.
While Hamas has adhered to the terms of the first phase, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, has reneged on the start of the second phase in deference to extremists in his ruling coalition, according to Hebrew media.