At least four Palestinians were killed on Monday in Gaza after Israeli strikes and gunfire, health officials said, as mediators readied further talks in Cairo aimed at preserving a U.S.-brokered plan for the embattled enclave.
Medical sources reported that an Israeli airstrike killed a woman in Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip. A separate strike killed one person in the Nuseirat refugee camp nearby. Later on Monday, an attack targeting the rooftop of a building in Gaza City struck two people, identified by health officials as a medic and his son, who were killed in the strike.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incidents.
The violence coincides with the expected arrival in Cairo of Nikolay Mladenov, described in reports as U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, according to sources close to the mediation effort. His arrival was due later on Monday, a day after Hamas submitted its response to a 15-point blueprint he had presented to the group in recent weeks.
Sources involved in the mediation said Hamas and other Palestinian factions had agreed to all points of the proposal except one - the disarmament of Hamas. Hamas links any move toward disarmament to an Israeli withdrawal and to a political track that would open negotiations on Palestinian statehood.
Critics of the current situation point to an October 2025 truce brokered by President Trump that halted the most intense fighting but has not ended Israeli attacks in Gaza or secured the disarmament of Hamas militants. That truce has therefore not produced a durable cessation of hostilities, according to the reporting.
Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked over the next phase of Mr. Trump’s Gaza plan, which envisages Hamas laying down its arms in exchange for Israeli withdrawals. Hamas on Monday said leaders of Palestinian factions who met with mediators - Egypt, Qatar and Turkey - in Cairo over the past week emphasized the need for Israel to "fully and unconditionally comply with the terms of the ceasefire agreement, in its entirety and without fragmentation."
Hamas attributes the lack of a full agreement to end the Gaza conflict to Israel’s refusal to meet first-phase obligations agreed in October, which paused major fighting but did not stop Israeli strikes.
Israel, for its part, asserts that its strikes aim to prevent imminent attacks by Hamas and other militants.
Health officials report that Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 990 people since the truce came into effect, while Israeli authorities say that four soldiers have been killed by militants in the same period. Israel insists that Hamas must disarm, surrender power in Gaza and have no role in the enclave’s future governance.
On the ground, Israel continues to occupy more than half of Gaza, where it has ordered residents to evacuate and has demolished remaining structures. Nearly the entire population - more than 2 million Palestinians - now resides in a narrow coastal strip, living predominantly in tents and damaged buildings, under Hamas’ de facto control.
Contextual note - The mediators involved in the Cairo discussions include Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and their recent talks with Palestinian factions focused on implementing elements of the 15-point plan. The central outstanding issue remains disarmament, with Hamas linking any step on that matter to reciprocal Israeli actions and political guarantees.
The coming days of negotiations in Cairo will test whether the parties can bridge the current stalemate and produce concrete steps to reduce violence and address the humanitarian conditions on the ground. For now, attacks have continued despite previous agreements aimed at limiting fighting.