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Israeli troops are seen near the border with Gaza Strip in southern Israel, January 19, 2025. /CFP
Israeli warplanes and artillery attacked the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. According to Palestinian medics, eight people were killed shortly after Israel and Hamas missed a deadline for a ceasefire that could pave the way for halting the Middle East's most devastating conflict in years.
The delay in implementing the ceasefire and the latest violence came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked, an hour before the 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) deadline, that Hamas provide the names of three hostages it was to release on Sunday as part of the agreement.
Hamas said it was committed to the ceasefire but that it had been so far unable to provide the hostage list for "technical field reasons", without elaborating.
The ceasefire deal could help usher in an end to the Gaza war, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the tiny coastal territory, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's response decimated the Gaza Strip, killing nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza-based health authorities. The war also set off a confrontation throughout the Middle East between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran, which backs Hamas and other anti-Israeli and anti-American paramilitary forces across the region.
Israeli military spokespeople said in separate statements on Sunday that their aircraft and artillery had attacked "terror targets" in northern and central Gaza, and that the military would continue to attack the strip as long as Hamas failed to meet its obligations under the ceasefire.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said that at least eight people were killed in the Israeli attacks and dozens wounded. Medics reported tanks firing at the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, with an airstrike and tank fire also targeting the northern town of Beit Hanoun and sending residents who had returned there in anticipation of the ceasefire fleeing.
An air raid siren that sounded in the Sderot area of southern Irael had been a false alarm, the Israeli military said in a separate statement.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, some celebratory gunshots and cheers were heard at 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) when the ceasefire was meant to take effect.
Israeli forces had started withdrawing from areas in Gaza's Rafah to the Philadelphi Route along the border between Egypt and Gaza, pro-Hamas media reported early on Sunday.
Netanyahu's demand for a list of the first three hostages, who were to be released in the hours following the ceasefire, came an hour before the deadline.
"The prime minister instructed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) that the ceasefire, which is supposed to go into effect at 8:30 a.m., will not begin until Israel has the list of released abductees that Hamas has pledged to provide," his office said on Sunday.
Hamas said the delay was "technical" but that the hostages' names could be released very soon.
The three-stage ceasefire agreement followed months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and came just ahead of the January 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
The first three are female hostages expected to be released through the Red Cross on Sunday. In return for each, 30 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are to be released.
Under the terms of the deal, Hamas will inform the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of the meeting point location inside Gaza, while the ICRC is expected to head to the location to collect the hostages, an official involved in the process told Reuters.