Israeli strikes kill at least 82 in Gaza hours after ceasefire deal announced
Israeli strikes killed at least 82 people across Gaza on Wednesday, including at least 30 in Gaza City, even after Israel and Hamas announced that they had reached a ceasefire agreement, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.
The timing mattered as much as the toll. Palestinians briefly celebrated news of the deal, but the ceasefire was not due to begin until Sunday, leaving several days in which fighting could still continue. By then, the source report says, many people in Gaza were already worried that the final hours before the truce would be even deadlier.
One of the deadliest strikes hit a house near the Engineers Union Building in Gaza City, where at least 18 people were killed, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent. The Palestinian Civil Defence said it later retrieved 12 bodies from Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. In central Gaza, five people were killed in a drone strike in the Karaj area of the Bureij camp.
The report also described how people who had momentarily hoped for relief were thrown back into fear. Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the pause in celebrations was quickly replaced by anxiety that the bombing would worsen before the ceasefire entered into force. That atmosphere of uncertainty is central to understanding why the casualty count mattered beyond the numbers themselves.
The source article says Israeli forces had killed at least 80 people in Gaza by the time of reporting, but medical sources later put the figure at 82. Because the evidence packet uses both figures, the safer summary is that the toll rose to at least 82 as the day progressed.
The report also notes that the fighting occurred as Gaza’s population faced severe shortages. The war had already driven acute humanitarian need, and continued attacks during the transition period threatened to make the start of the ceasefire even more fragile. The evidence does not establish whether the ceasefire later held, only that Palestinians were still under fire before it started.
The Israeli military said it had hit a manufacturing site in a retaliatory context, but the supplied excerpt focuses mainly on civilian casualties and the continuing bombings rather than on the military rationale. The overall picture is one of a conflict still inflicting heavy losses even as diplomats announced that a pause was coming.
For civilians in Gaza, the gap between announcement and implementation was as dangerous as any battlefield. Families had a deal to look toward, but not yet the protection it was supposed to bring.
*Event date: 2025-01-16*
