ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least 21 people were killed and many others injured in a wave of Israeli air raids across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to Gaza’s civil defense service, as Hamas and Israel once again accused each other of breaking a tenuous ceasefire.

The latest strikes made Saturday one of the bloodiest days since a US-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on October 10. The agreement, brokered by US President Donald Trump, came after two years of sustained conflict in the region. According to Gaza's health ministry, the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people, the majority of whom are civilians.

The Israeli military said that an “armed terrorist” crossed the Yellow Line into the Israeli-occupied territory in southern Gaza and opened fire on Israeli troops, after which they “began striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip” in response.

The Yellow Line refers to the designated withdrawal boundary for the Israeli military under the first phase of the US-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal. The area contains nearly half of the Gaza Strip’s territory.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense agency, told AFP that 21 people were killed in five separate airstrikes “in a clear violation of the ceasefire.”

Among the dead, he said, were seven people killed and more than 16 wounded when a house was hit in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza, and four people killed in a strike on an apartment in the Al‑Nasr district in western Gaza City.

Bassal said the first attack of the day targeted a vehicle in Gaza City’s Al‑Rimal neighborhood, killing five and injuring several more. An AFP photographer at the scene reported that residents approached the burned‑out vehicle, with children seen trying to retrieve food from the wreckage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the escalation, saying the group had violated the truce.

“Today, Hamas violated the ceasefire again, sending a terrorist into Israel‑held territory to attack IDF soldiers. In response, Israel eliminated five senior Hamas terrorists,” his office said in a statement on X.

“Israel has fully honored the ceasefire, Hamas has not,” it added, claiming that “dozens of Hamas terrorists” have crossed Israeli lines to attack troops during the truce. The statement urged mediators to “insist that Hamas fulfil its side of the ceasefire.”

Hamas, for its part, accused Israel of systematically undermining the agreement. The movement said what it described as an “escalation” in Israeli actions was aimed at sabotaging the truce and denounced attempts by Netanyahu’s government to create “a de facto reality that contradicts what was agreed upon.” It called on mediators to act quickly to halt what it called ongoing violations.

The surge in violence followed another deadly round of attacks earlier in the week.

On Thursday, fresh Israeli strikes killed four people in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which revised upward an earlier death toll of three announced by the civil defense agency. Those raids came after Wednesday was already described by local officials as one of the worst days since the truce, with 27 fatalities reported.

Gaza’s health ministry said Thursday that 312 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect.

On Monday, the UN Security Council approved a US-sponsored resolution endorsing President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza. Hamas rejected the measure, saying it failed to address Palestinians’ “political and humanitarian demands.”