Abdel Qader Sabbah & Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Drop Site News / August 6, 2026
Story by Abdel Qader Sabbah, Mohamed Ahmed, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Jawa Ahmad
After Hamas agreed to a roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza “ceasefire,” Israel escalated its assault on Gaza and the Board of Peace backtracked.
GAZA CITY—Ahmed Abu al-Kas was sifting through the debris of an apartment in the Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City in the aftermath of a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike on Sunday that killed a pregnant woman, her husband, and their five-year-old son. Among the broken concrete, strewn blankets, children’s toys, and backpacks lay the body of an unborn baby, curled in a foetal position and covered in grey dust. Al-Kas watched as another man picked up the tiny figure with a hand towel and gingerly placed it on a pile of blankets.
He had been nearby when the bombing happened. “All of a sudden, we heard the sound of an explosion. We started running and we came next to the tower,” Al-Kas (32) told Drop Site News later that day. “I broke down the door and went in with the other young men. I found body parts scattered everywhere. Over there, I found a small child. I shined my flashlight into the other part of the apartment, and found that half of it had collapsed. Since this morning, I’ve been searching through the rubble for the body parts left behind overnight. While searching, I found this baby.”
The force of the blast had apparently torn the baby from the mother’s body. Al-Kas was distraught. “I found a baby thrown from its mother’s womb,” he said. “His mother was torn apart, and I found [the baby] just like this.”
The attack on the family home in the Al-Sousi Tower came on one of the deadliest days in Gaza in recent weeks, with at least 18 Palestinians killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—just as President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace was claiming that an agreement had been reached on a new phase of “the ceasefire.”
Remnants of the munition found at the site appeared to be from an Israeli weapon, likely a suicide drone—a type of highly precise attack drone—that has been used frequently in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, according to Trevor Ball, an analyst with Armament Research Services (ARES) and a former U.S. army explosive ordnance disposal specialist, after reviewing images provided by Drop Site News.
VIDEO – Ahmed Abu al-Kas and others remove debris and body parts after a strike on a residential tower in Gaza City on August 2, 2026; video by Mohamed Ahmed – CLICK HERE
The surge in Israeli attacks came in the wake of a deal with Hamas, first announced by Trump on Thursday, on a roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza “ceasefire.” Shortly after Trump’s announcement, mediator countries said Hamas had, “for the first time,” formally committed to “an actionable plan for relinquishing all its weapons.”
The following day, Hamas said it had engaged “responsibly and positively” with mediators’ proposals but stressed that implementation of the deal would only proceed if Israel fulfilled all of its obligations under the first phase of the October 2025 agreement. The group said discussions over handing over its heavy weapons were conditional on a permanent end to Israeli attacks, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, early recovery and reconstruction, the entry of a Palestinian technocratic committee and international forces, the dismantling of Israel-backed armed militias, and progress toward Palestinian self-determination and an independent Palestinian state.
While Tel Aviv did not initially issue a formal response, Israeli officials were quickly quoted in the press saying they rejected the deal as the escalated weekend assault began.
On Saturday, at least six Palestinians were killed in a series of airstrikes, including one targeting the area of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, damaging an adjacent medical storage facility and destroying essential medical supplies as well as a number of tents sheltering displaced families.
“We went to sleep under a [new ceasefire deal]. Trump announced a ceasefire and things were going in the right direction.…We slept peacefully and happily, thinking that the situation would get better from the next day onward,” Fatima Sharab, who was displaced from her home and living in a tent near Al-Aqsa Hospital, told Drop Site News. She said she was woken up at around 2 a.m. on Saturday morning with instructions to flee the area before it was bombed.
Sharab stood among shredded tents and belongings that littered the ground next to a massive crater in the sand. “The camp here is made up of tents and a warehouse for kidney medications for dialysis patients. So what was the problem? What did we do wrong?” She added, “You can’t even tell where your own tent was or where your belongings are. Today, we have no shelter. I don’t even know what to say anymore.”
VIDEO – The aftermath of an Israeli strike near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah on August 1, 2026; video by Abdel Qader Sabbah – CLICK HERE
According to the director of Al-Aqsa Hospital, Raed Hussein, the warehouse that was targeted on Saturday was the main one of four the hospital established in coordination with the World Health Organization to help deal with a storage crisis. “This warehouse contained all the solutions and equipment needed for kidney dialysis,” Hussein told Drop Site News. “We were shocked to wake up today and find that this warehouse had been targeted…Over the past three years, supplies have never been fully available, and when they do arrive, they come only in limited quantities. So you can imagine the consequences of this attack.”
The heavy assault continued the next day when an Israeli missile slammed into Al-Thawra Street in western Gaza City, killing a child and a bridegroom in his tent.
“He was preparing his tent for his wedding, then he was torn apart in it,” said Rasem Asaliya, 35, an eyewitness. “They said there would be a ceasefire, no more strikes, no more assassinations. But they struck anyway.”
The torn, blood-spattered tent barely stood up-right next to a small crater where the missile struck. “They are still attacking us and our children. Nothing has changed. They’re liars. They broke their word,” said Mohamed Yassin (37) who rushed to the site in the aftermath of the attack. “All the news we’re hearing [about a new deal] is a lie. This isn’t news; it’s all false propaganda.”
On Monday, three countries that have served as mediators—Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey—issued their first joint statement condemning the Israeli attacks. They denounced Israel’s targeting of healthcare facilities and medical infrastructure, and the killing of civilians, including women and children, calling the attacks “a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”
At the same time, Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative of Board of Peace, along with other board members, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The board issued a statement shortly afterwards saying “Israel and the Board of Peace share a common understanding of the ultimate objectives.” The statement clarified a series of measures that contravened the board’s own roadmap, saying Hamas must first fully disarm before Israel took any steps. “Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators. This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike,” the board said.
In his first public comments on the agreement on Tuesday, Netanyahu flatly rejected the deal. “They sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” he said in a video posted on social media. “We’re not withdrawing from our current lines until Hamas is totally disarmed.”
Since the “ceasefire” agreement went into effect nearly 10 months ago, Israel has violated the terms of the deal on a daily basis. Over 1,250 Palestinians have been killed, including over 300 children, in routine airstrikes, shelling, and shooting. Israel has not allowed in the agreed upon levels of humanitarian aid and life essentials, blocked the entry of reconstructions equipment and shelters, refused to fully open the Rafah border crossing, and has gradually pushed in its ground troops further westward from what was supposed to be an initial line of withdrawal of 53% of Gaza to now controlling nearly 70% of the enclave.
The pace of killing has been gradually increasing. Gaza’s Health Ministry recently noted that 152 people were killed during the month of July, including 21 children, marking the highest monthly death toll recorded since the beginning of 2026 in what has been a steady escalation over the past few months.
The official death toll since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal assault in October 2023 has now topped 73,300 with over 174,200 injured. Thousands more are missing and trapped under the rubble. Denied proper equipment and resources, Civil Defense crews have been unable to properly retrieve the bodies.
Over the weekend, first responders managed to complete intensive efforts to recover the remains of 112 Palestinians, including 40 children, killed in one of the deadliest single incidents of the genocide—an Israeli attack on a residential block in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City on November 22, 2023 that killed over 300 members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families in what Amnesty International called “a chilling illustration of a pattern of Israeli attacks wiping out entire multi-generational families.”
A mass funeral ceremony was held on Tuesday for the 112 retrieved bodies in what was understood to be the largest funeral in Gaza’s modern history. The bodies, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were carried on stretchers through the destroyed streets of Gaza City before being laid in rows on the ground for the funeral prayer. They were then brought to a nearby cemetery to be laid to rest.
VIDEO – A mass funeral ceremony in Gaza City for the remains of 112 Palestinians retrieved from under the rubble after an Israeli attack on a residential block in the Sabra neighbourhood in November 2023; video by Abdel Qader Sabbah – CLICK HERE
“This overwhelming scene reminds us of the crimes and attacks committed by the Israeli occupation, and its brutality and criminality against these families,” Fares Affana, the Civil Defense Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in North Gaza told Drop Site News. “This massacre is one of the largest carried out in the Gaza Strip. We could hear the cries and screams of the wounded from beneath the rubble of such massacres. Some were wounded and still alive. But because of our lack of equipment, we couldn’t reach them.”
Another mourner watched as the martyrs were carried through the streets. “Those whose bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble and debris embody for the world the devotion to the Palestinian cause,” he said. “This is not a funeral for one family alone. It is a funeral for all of Gaza.”
Abdel Qader Sabbah – journalist and videographer in northern Gaza
Sharif Abdel Kouddous – journalist and editor at Drop Site News
Sami Vanderlip edited the videos for this report
