Raz Zarfati, sister of Ron Zarfati who was killed in the October 7, 2023 attacks, attend a memorial marking the third anniversary of the attack at the Nova music festival site near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli strikes killed at least four people, including two children, in the Gaza Strip ‌on Thursday (July 30, 2026), health officials said, as mediators held new talks with Hamas leaders to work towards full ​implementation of a U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan.

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A Hamas official and a diplomat close to Cairo talks with mediators said ⁠discussion were “positive” and “making progress”.

The diplomat said the negotiations were ongoing and making progress toward a roadmap that would see all heavy and light weapons in Gaza decommissioned.

Meanwhile, medics said an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, killed a man and ‌an eight-year-old girl.

In the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike hit a house killing an 18-month-old child and wounding at least eight people, medics said.

Later on Thursday (July 30, 2026), an Israeli strike targeted ‌a Palestinian man on a bike near a tent encampment housing displaced families in Gaza City, killing one person and wounding ‌10 ⁠others.

The Israeli military said the strikes targeted Hamas militants, without providing further detail.

The latest deaths add to ⁠a toll of more than 1,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials.

Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.

The truce halted full-scale fighting but has not ended near-daily Israeli strikes. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza since.

CAIRO TALKS

In Cairo, ​Hamas leaders were holding talks with mediators from Egypt, Qatar ‌and Turkey, over the implementation of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, as presented to them by his Board of Peace, which oversees its implementation.

The plan called for a surge in humanitarian aid, governance by a civilian Palestinian administration, the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the deployment of an international force to help maintain ‌security.

But progress has stalled in previous months.

On Thursday (July 30, 2026), a Hamas official said the group was coming with a “positive ​and good” response, but he did not say whether the group had agreed to fully disarm — a key sticking point in the talks over the past four months.

Hamas wants Israel to commit to ending attacks ⁠on Gaza and withdrawing its forces.

Sources close to Hamas said the group was willing to “confine and store” heavy weapons under a Palestinian body, not hand them over to Israel. Hamas did not comment on the matter.

It is not yet clear what will happen regarding ‌light or personal weapons or whether the new Hamas stance would be accepted by Israel and the Board of Peace.

The diplomat involved in the talks said the roadmap under discussion in Cairo, in addition seeing all heavy and light weapons in Gaza decommissioned, would see authority transferred in phases to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), with “no exceptions” and under the principle of “one authority, one law, one weapon”.

The diplomat said the plan includes the elimination of tunnels, weapons stockpiles and weapons production facilities, adding that by the end of the process there would be no remaining militant infrastructure in Gaza.

The diplomat described the roadmap as being based on reciprocal ‌steps rather than trust.

So far, the reality on the ground in Gaza remains far from this roadmap.

The Israeli military has continued to expand its military occupation ​of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel intends to expand the area under its control to 70% of the enclave.

So far, NCAG has been based in Cairo without announcing a timeline for its ⁠entry into the strip.

It remains unclear how many forces would be available to deploy with the ISF, and whether Israeli troops would ⁠withdraw from the enclave.

The Board of Peace declined immediate comment on the Cairo talks.

Israel wants Hamas to cede power completely in Gaza and to fully disarm. Hamas dissolved a de facto Gaza government last month but maintained a caretaker body ‌to provide vital services to residents.

Israel effectively controls an estimated 64% of the tiny coastal Gaza Strip, bombed to ruins in its two-year military assault following a 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people now live ​on a sliver of land on the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings and facing dire living conditions, under Hamas control. (

Published – July 30, 2026 10:55 pm IST