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Gaza ‘ceasefire’ talks resume in Cairo as Israel continues to bomb strip, suspend entry of aid

June 9, 2026

Talks to advance the Gaza ceasefire toward the second stage have begun in Cairo between mediators and Palestinian factions, AFP reported on 8 June, citing a Palestinian source familiar with the meeting.

The talks began on Sunday before resuming on Monday, amid Israel’s ongoing violations of the ceasefire reached with Hamas in October.

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye met with Hamas representatives and other Palestinian factions in a bid to move the ceasefire to its second stage.

Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News channel said Sunday’s talks focused on “the proposed roadmap for completing the implementation of the agreement” and were “held in a positive atmosphere.”

Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s military has continued launching near-daily attacks on civilians in Gaza, as well as expanding the territory under its direct occupation.

Israeli forces have killed at least 936 people since the so-called ceasefire took effect on 11 October 2025, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry reported on Monday that nine Palestinians were killed and 43 others were wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, with many victims remaining trapped under rubble as civil defense crews struggle to reach them.

In the Jabalia refugee camp, north of the strip, medical sources said two Palestinians were killed – among them an eight-year-old boy – and others were injured after an Israeli ‌airstrike hit a group of people digging a well.

Over the past two years of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, its military has destroyed most structures in Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to live in tents along the coast.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Israeli forces retreated to territory encompassing roughly 50 percent of the strip marked by the “Yellow Line.” According to the truce, Israeli troops were supposed to withdraw further, but have instead incrementally moved the boundary hundreds of meters deeper into Gaza in several areas, bulldozing civilian infrastructure to construct military outposts and permanent barriers.

Israel is now in direct control of 60 percent of Gaza’s territory, while the remainder is under Israeli blockade.

On 28 May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that his troops would soon control 70 percent of Gaza and potentially even 100 percent of the enclave in the future.

A Hamas official said on Monday that “Israel refuses to end attacks on civilians in Gaza, allow 600 trucks of aid and goods into Gaza as agreed, and it continues to occupy more land every day.”

The administration of Gaza and the entry of desperately needed aid are supposed to be overseen by the “Board of Peace,” an international body established by US President Trump as part of the ceasefire.

However, a group of some of the world’s leading aid organizations said last month that the Board of Peace was “failing” and that Israel is still obstructing the entry of aid into the enclave.

“The [UN] resolution and the peace plan called for immediate full aid, no interference with aid, and the immediate rehabilitation of infrastructure. By all metrics, this has not happened,” stated Janti Soeripto, the CEO of Save the Children US.

The Israeli military shut down all border corridors into the Gaza Strip on Monday and suspended the entry of humanitarian aid as a form of collective punishment over Iranian strikes that responded to Israeli violations in Lebanon.

The Israeli Coordinator of the Occupation Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT) confirmed the closure will remain in place while Israeli authorities assess the ongoing “security situation.”

COGAT has claimed that the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza exceeds the population’s nutritional needs.

Since March, Palestinian officials have reported that Israel is currently allowing only about 10 percent of the territory’s actual needs to enter, with just 640 aid trucks arriving out of the 6,000 required to sustain the population’s minimum nutritional needs.