Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza Leave Nine Dead, Minister Eli Cohen Rules Out Pause

For the second day in a row, Israeli warplanes roared over Gaza, dropping bombs that ripped through apartments in the north, the centre and the south of the enclave. By nightfall officials said nine Palestinians lay dead – men, women and even a child – their homes reduced to rubble.

In a brief appearance on a televised briefing, Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security cabinet, flatly rejected the notion that a cease‑fire had been negotiated. “There is no deal to stop the attacks,” he said, adding that Israel, which already controls about 70 % of the territory, must eventually take full authority over the Strip.

The bloodshed unfolded in three separate spots. In Deir al‑Balah, an air strike on an apartment killed a husband and his wife, while four others were wounded. In Gaza City, a bomb slammed into a residential flat, killing a child and another adult. Further north, in the crowded Jabalia area, a lone strike took the life of a civilian near a market. And in Khan Younis’s Mawasi neighbourhood, a father, his wife and their nine‑year‑old son were wiped out at dawn.

Israel’s military said the Deir al‑Balah raid was aimed at two commanders of Hamas’s elite “Nukhba” unit. The blows in Gaza City and Jabalia, it claimed, were directed at “military operatives,” though the armed forces said they were still reviewing the outcomes of those attacks.

Since the latest round of hostilities began, Palestinian health officials tally the death toll at more than 1,230, with dozens more injured. The death count rises even as international leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, tout a breakthrough in talks to revive a cease‑fire agreed upon last year.