Soon after President Trump announced a new plan last week to deliver the disarmament of Hamas, in exchange for peace and security in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave instead experienced a spike in deadly Israeli bombings, which threatens to undermine hopes for long-awaited progress, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed 18 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza, making it one of the deadliest days there since a troubled cease-fire came into force in October. Gaza health ministry data from the conflict does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israeli strikes a day earlier killed at least three people and damaged warehouses for medical supplies. The IDF later confirmed two of the men were Hamas leaders, naming them as Adnan Taha Abu al-Tayf, a Nukhba commander in Hamas' military wing, who the Israeli military claims infiltrated Israel during the 7 October 7 attacks. In an additional strike in the Shati area, the IDF says it eliminated Jalal Tsubeih, a commander in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion of Hamas' military wing. The third person killed was Mahmoud Fatair, a Nukhba commander in the Islamic Jihad's Central Gaza Brigade, the IDF confirmed.

The mounting death toll since the ceasefire, according to UNICEF, has resulted in the deaths of at least 300 children, despite an agreement for the suspension of military operations and the full entry of humanitarian aid and relief almost 10 months ago.

"A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children," UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, said in a statement on Thursday. "With hundreds more children injured, many severely, children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised."

'UNICEF calls on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law,' the statement said.

Also on Thursday, In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, and Saudi Arabia said the continued violations constitute a clear breach of Israel's obligations under international law and undermine international and regional efforts to end the war in Gaza.

They warned that the violations threaten to derail the political process, fuel a new cycle of escalation, and deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The ministers stressed the need to protect civilians and ensure the immediate, safe, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and relief assistance throughout Gaza.

With many of the latest plan's details still unclear, including a timetable for Hamas's disarmament at its heart, the 15-point plan released by Mr Trump's Board of Peace — which also calls for an Israeli withdrawal and a new administration in Gaza — risks being undone before the specifics are worked out.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office, Doron Spielman, pushed back against the terms of the agreement, which Israel has not signed. "The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel's positions," he said in a statement. The Israeli spokesman added, "Israel has conveyed its comments and concerns on the proposed framework to our American counterparts." He said the concerns centered on the issue of Hamas disarmament.

Nickolay E. Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat who is the Board of Peace Director-General and High Representative for Gaza, levelled rare criticism at Israel over its attacks.

"Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies that people depend on," he said in a statement posted on social media on Sunday. He said that the attacks came after "intense efforts" by the mediators to reach a deal and that he and his team were "working around the clock with the parties, mediators and regional partners to de-escalate."

In a joint statement on Monday, three countries that have served as mediators — Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye — condemned what they described as "the ongoing Israeli violations" in Gaza.

Hamas said in a statement that "entire families" were wiped out on Sunday, and it accused Israel of "a deliberate escalation" aimed at blocking the plan.

A Pattern of Escalation and a Stark Toll

The Israeli military has said that its strikes in recent days have targeted Hamas fighters and weapons infrastructure. It also said it had taken steps to mitigate harm to civilians. Mladenov met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested all IDF strikes against Hamas in Gaza stop so a "14-day ceasefire" aimed at kickstarting the demilitarisation of Hamas could begin, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday, quoting sources familiar with the matter.

Since the October cease-fire, Israel has steadily stepped up attacks across the Gaza Strip, following a pattern of intensified military action coinciding with diplomatic efforts. In July, the military carried out almost daily strikes and named at least 50 militants it said it had eliminated, including what it said were Hamas members who had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. That attack ignited the war in Gaza.

The scale of the ongoing violence is stark: According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 1,254 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. This number now exceeds the approximately 1,200 people killed in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which triggered the Israeli military campaign. Overall, the conflict has left 73,381 dead and 174,321 wounded, most of them horrifically, according to the same officials - and leaving most of the enclave in ruins.

On Tuesday, a mass funeral was held in Gaza City for 112 people whose bodies had been pulled from the rubble in recent weeks, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run interior ministry.

Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst and a former Israeli military intelligence officer specializing in Palestinian affairs, said it was "no coincidence" that Israel had recently increased its pace of attacks.

Israel was either showing it did not care about the agreement, he said, "or there was a fear that the point may come where the United States tells Israel to stop" and the military was striking while it still could.

On Sunday night, Mohammed Dahlan, an influential Palestinian exile and a confidant of the president of the United Arab Emirates, wrote on social media that Jared Kushner, a son-in-law and an aide to Mr. Trump, had provided assurances that he reached an agreement with Israel that it would cease its strikes. But shortly thereafter, he edited the post, deleting the reference to an agreement, and said Mr. Kushner had conveyed he was "working with the Israeli side to stop the attacks on Gaza."

Negotiators on the Board of Peace described the new agreement with Hamas, announced by Mr. Trump last week, as a "road map" intended to cement the fragile cease-fire, disarm Hamas, secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and enable a return to normalcy for the population and the start of reconstruction.

But key questions immediately arose over whether Hamas and Israel would carry out the agreement. According to the text, the parties were given two weeks to determine a schedule, which an international verification committee could extend. While Hamas has agreed to disarmament, it is subject to Israel's withdrawal.