Israel launches airstrikes in Gaza as Rafah border set to reopen

The Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an attack that a Gaza health official said killed at least 26 people and that the military said targeted commanders from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; the strikes came as the cease-fire was set to move into its next phase and the Rafah border crossing was expected to reopen.

Zaher al-Waheidi, an official at the Gaza health ministry, said the strikes were the deadliest in weeks. The Israeli military said the strikes were in response to an incident on Friday in which militants had emerged from a tunnel in Rafah, in an Israeli-controlled area in the south of Gaza, and described the incident as “a violation of the cease-fire agreement.” Hamas said the “bombardment” in Gaza was a “flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement.” The strikes came days before the expected reopening of a crucial land crossing between Gaza and Egypt, close to the city of Rafah, a long-delayed part of the cease-fire agreed in October.

The opening of the border crossing would allow Palestinians who had fled the two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas to return home for the first time. As part of the cease-fire deal, Hamas released the remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, while the Israeli military withdrew to an agreed-upon line inside Gaza that left it in control of about half of the enclave.

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