Palestine weekly: Israel kills dozens in Gaza after Hamas disarmament deal

Published 4 August 2026 · world

Israeli strikes on Gaza only intensified in the days following a US-brokered agreement billed as a ‘breakthrough’. United States President Donald Trump announced “a historic

Israeli strikes on Gaza only intensified in the days following a US-brokered agreement billed as a ‘breakthrough’. United States President Donald Trump announced “a historic agreement” on July 30 for the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, framed as the long-awaited move into the second phase of the October 2025 “ceasefire” deal. The agreement was negotiated through the Board of Peace, established by Trump to oversee post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza. However, Hamas negotiator Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera the Palestinian group would not implement the deal unless Israel fulfilled its obligations, which include halting attacks and withdrawing troops. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, said Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas was fully disarmed. With that fundamental deadlock unresolved, Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have characterised the 10-month “ceasefire”, continued, arguably with even greater intensity. Within days of the announcement of the “historic agreement”, Israeli strikes killed at least 19 Palestinians in a single day, bringing the weekend death toll in Gaza to 26. Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov condemned the escalation without naming Israel directly: “Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies that people depend on,” he said. The attacks capped a month that was the deadliest in Gaza this year, and the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, in terms of Israeli settler attacks, since 2023. New deal, no change On Sunday, strikes hit families in their homes. In Gaza City’s al-Sousi Tower, a strike killed Abdullah Abu Taif, 33, his pregnant wife, Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son, Azzam. Medics recovered the remains of an unborn child from the rubble, according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital. In al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, a strike on an apartment killed Mahmoud al-Hams, 38, his wife, Fatima, 37, and their young daughter.

Three others were wounded, medics at Nasser Hospital said. Near Deir el-Balah, an elderly couple, Kamal and Huda Abu Muailiq, 68 and 59, were also killed in their home. A separate strike killed two brothers riding a motorbike in the same area. Later that evening, a strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood killed two people, including a child. Four more people died in the neighbourhood when a drone struck a vehicle near the Sharia Court. Israel claimed the attack hit military operatives. On Saturday, an overnight strike destroyed the medicine warehouse attached to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, wiping out two of four storage facilities and severely damaging two more. The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas weapons depot located next to the hospital, one of five such sites it said it struck that night. Gaza Minister of Health Director-General Munir al-Bursh told Al Jazeera the strike “turns medicine and illness itself into a tool of war”. The Health Ministry said that July was the deadliest month in Gaza since the start of the year, with 152 people killed. By August 3, the cumulative toll since the October 2025 “ceasefire” had reached 1,250 killed and more than 4,100 wounded. On August 1, Gaza’s Civil Defence completed a two-week search of a flattened home in the Sabra neighbourhood, retrieving 112 bodies, 40 of them children. Some 157 people remained missing, according to Mohammed Abu Dan, who oversaw the recovery. Some, he said, were fused into concrete by the force of the explosions. Thousands of bodies are believed to still be under the rubble across Gaza. Elsewhere in Gaza this week, one-year-old Zaid Nofal was killed when a strike hit his family’s home in the Bureij refugee camp. In Khan Younis, an Israeli drone strike on a tent killed eight-year-old Ratil Abdullah and 20-year-old Abdullah al-Balawi, according to Gaza Now.