The Israeli military announced on Sunday that a ceasefire in Gaza had resumed following an attack that killed two of its soldiers and triggered airstrikes that Palestinians said left 26 people dead, marking the most serious test of this month’s truce.

US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire he brokered remained in place and suggested Hamas leadership may not have been involved in the violations. “We think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Either way … it’s going to be handled toughly but properly,” Trump added. He also said he did not know whether the Israeli strikes were justified. “I’d have to get back to you on that,” he said.

Aid to Gaza is set to resume on Monday following US pressure, an Israeli security source said, after Israel had temporarily halted supplies in response to what it described as a “blatant” truce violation by Hamas.

The airstrikes killed at least 26 people, including a woman and a child, according to local residents and health authorities. At least one strike hit a former school sheltering displaced residents in Nuseirat.

“We’re going to have to see what’s happening. We want to make sure that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas,” Trump said.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Israel on Monday, Israeli and US officials said.

The armed wing of Hamas stated it remains committed to the ceasefire, was unaware of clashes in Rafah, and had not communicated with groups there since March.

US Vice President JD Vance did not address the Israeli strikes directly, but noted that around 40 Hamas cells remain active, with no security infrastructure yet to ensure complete disarmament.

“Some of those cells will probably honor the ceasefire. Many, as we saw today, will not,” he said. Vance added that Gulf Arab states may need to deploy forces to maintain law, order, and security on the ground before Hamas can be fully disarmed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to respond forcefully to what he called Hamas’ violations of the ceasefire.

PATH TO PEACE IS UNCERTAIN

Fearing the truce may collapse, some Palestinians rushed to buy goods from a main market in Nuseirat and families fled their homes in Khan Younis further south, after airstrikes hit nearby.

The strikes were reminiscent of Israel’s response to what it viewed as serious violations of its ceasefire with Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah in late 2024, less than a week after it came into effect and after days of mutual accusations of truce breaches, though that ceasefire has since largely held.

But formidable obstacles remain in the way of a durable peace in Gaza, where a ceasefire collapsed in March after nearly two months of relative calm when Israel unleashed a barrage of airstrikes.

DISPUTE OVER BODIES OF DECEASED HOSTAGES

The new ceasefire took effect on October 10, halting two years of war, but the Israeli government and Hamas have been accusing each other of violations of the ceasefire for days.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the “yellow line” to where Israeli forces had pulled back under the ceasefire deal would be physically marked and that any violation of the ceasefire or attempt to cross the line would be met with fire.

Hamas detailed what it said was a series of violations by Israel that it says have left 46 people dead and stopped essential supplies from reaching the enclave.

On Saturday, Israel said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which had been expected to be reopened this week, would remain closed and that its reopening would depend on Hamas fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire.

Israel says Hamas is being too slow in handing over bodies of deceased hostages.

Hamas last week released all 20 living hostages it had been holding and in the following days has handed over 12 of the 28 deceased captives.

MORE AID IS NEEDED

Hamas says it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining hostages and that special equipment is needed to recover corpses buried under rubble.

The Rafah crossing has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.

The crossing has in previous ceasefires functioned as a key conduit for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.

Although the flow of aid through another crossing had, until Sunday’s decision to halt aid, increased significantly since the ceasefire began, the United Nations says far more is needed.

Key questions of Hamas disarming, future governance of Gaza, the make-up of an international “stabilization force”, and moves towards creation of a Palestinian state have yet to be resolved.

• PM Modi said he’s “not going to be doing Russian oil thing”: Trump.
• Russian oil one of main irritants for Trump in trade talks with India. 
• India’s imports of Russian oil set to rise about 20% this month.
  

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: US President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India will stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not do so.

“I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”

Russian oil has been one of the main irritants for Trump in prolonged trade talks with India — half of his 50% tariffs on Indian goods are in retaliation for those purchases. The US government has said that petroleum revenue funds Russia’s war in Ukraine.

India has become the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian oil sold at a discount after Western nations shunned purchases and imposed sanctions on Moscow for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Trump on Wednesday said Modi had assured him that day that India would stop its Russian oil purchases. India’s foreign ministry said it was not aware of any telephone conversation between the leaders that day, but said that New Delhi’s main concern was to “safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer”.

A White House official said on Thursday that India has halved its purchases of Russian oil, but Indian sources said no immediate reduction had been seen.

The sources said Indian refiners already placed orders for November loading, including some slated for December arrival, so any cut may start showing up in December or January import numbers.

India’s imports of Russian oil are set to rise about 20% this month to 1.9 million barrels per day, according to estimates from commodities data firm Kpler, as Russia ramps up exports after Ukrainian drones hit its refineries.

• US forces attacked vessel linked to Colombian group, says Hegseth.
• Trump accuses Petro of backing drug production, halts US payments.
• US-Colombia relations strained over military actions, visa revocation.

US forces attacked a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday, the same day President Donald Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug leader” and said payments to the South American nation would cease.

Trump’s comments marked a new low in relations between Bogota and Washington, which have frayed since Trump returned to office in January and since his administration launched a series of strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean.

Hegseth wrote on X that the Pentagon had destroyed a vessel and killed three people on Friday “in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” which includes the Caribbean.

He said the ship was affiliated with the leftist rebel group National Liberation Army and was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, without offering evidence to back the claim.

The Pentagon said it had nothing to add beyond Hegseth’s initial post.

Colombia condemns Trump’s remarks

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry condemned Trump’s remarks as offensive and a direct threat to its sovereignty, and vowed to seek international support in defence of Petro and the country’s autonomy.

“These accusations represent an extremely serious act and undermine the dignity of the president of Colombians,” it said in a statement.

The post from Hegseth came hours after Trump lambasted Petro on social media and said the United States would stop large-scale payments and subsidies to Colombia.

“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” Trump wrote.

Reuters could not immediately establish which payments Trump was referring to. Colombia was once among the largest recipients of US aid in the Western Hemisphere. Still, the flow of money was suddenly curtailed this year by the shuttering of USAID, the US government’s humanitarian assistance arm.

The US State Department referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a query.

Fraught relations

Last month, the United States revoked Petro’s visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged US soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

The US administration’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean have also outraged Colombians. Many legal experts and human rights activists have condemned the extraordinary series of military actions, with Amnesty International describing it as murder on the high seas.

Earlier this month, Petro said one of the strikes hit a Colombian vessel, an allegation the Trump administration denied.

Petro condemned the most recent bombing, saying the boat belonged to a “humble family”, not the National Liberation Army. He also hit back at Trump’s remarks.

“Mr Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States… but you are rude and ignorant to Colombia,” Petro responded on X. “Since I am not a businessman, I am even less a drug trafficker. There is no greed in my heart.”

Colombia is fighting its own longstanding drug problems. Last year, Petro pledged to tame coca-growing regions in the country with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success.

In September, Trump designated countries such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia and Venezuela among those the United States believes to have “failed demonstrably” in upholding counternarcotics agreements during the past year.