Gaza truce progress slow as Israeli-Hamas violence persists

CAIRO/JERUSALEML: Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in Gaza near the line demarcating areas of Israeli control on Monday, underlining the struggle to broaden a fragile ceasefire deal approved over six weeks ago to global acclaim.

Palestinian medics said Monday’s incidents involved an Israeli drone firing a missile at a group of people

east of Khan Younis, killing two and wounding another, and a tank shell killing a person on the eastern

side of Gaza City.

Israel’s military said it had fired after identifying what it called “terrorists” crossing the so-called yellow line and approaching its troops, posing an immediate threat to them.

Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel signed a truce on October 9 halting two years of devastating warfare

but the agreement left the most intractable disputes for further talks, freezing the conflict without resolving it.

Both sides have since accused each other of deadly breaches of existing commitments in the agreement and of pushing back against later steps required by U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza.

Meanwhile, thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral organised by the militant Hezbollah group for its top military commander, a day after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut.

Hezbollah supporters walked by Haytham Tabtabai’s coffin, draped in the group’s yellow flag, as it was carried through the crowd.

The burial of Tabtabai and two other Hezbollah members took place in a cemetery south of Beirut where the group’s fighters are traditionally laid to rest.

Israel on Sunday struck Lebanon’s capital for the first time since June, saying it killed Tabtabai.

The Israeli military described him as Hezbollah’s chief of staff. Israel also warned the Iran-backed group not to rearm and rebuild a year after their latest war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire.

Sunday’s strike killed five people and wounded 28 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

“Let them (Israelis) continue their raids on us. They want us to surrender so they can enter our homes? Did you see what happened in Gaza? What did they do? They did nothing,” said a Hezbollah supporter who identified himself as Jaafar.