Smoke rises following an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian homes near the 'Yellow Line' in the eastern areas of Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza.

• Israeli strikes killed at least eight people in Gaza.
• More than half of Gaza is under Israeli military control.
• Israel has killed at least 936 people since the ceasefire began.

Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least eight people on Thursday, a spokesperson for the civil defence agency in the Palestinian territory told AFP.

“At least eight martyrs as a result of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City at dawn,” with seven killed in strikes on residential buildings and one in the Al-Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City, said spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal.

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City also reported 15 people wounded in the strikes, he added.

Despite a truce technically in effect since October, daily violence has rocked the Gaza Strip, over half of which is under Israeli military control in defiance of the ceasefire’s terms.

Israel has killed at least 936 people since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

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Both Hamas and Israel accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

The first phase of the truce involved the release of the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.

A transition to the second phase of the ceasefire, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, has been stalled for months.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip.

The latest head of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, was killed in an Israeli strike last week, a month after his predecessor was also killed.

A meeting between Hamas and Gaza truce mediators in Egypt has been postponed until Sunday, a source close to the movement said, as it demanded Israel halt ongoing attacks in the Palestinian territory.

The meeting had originally been planned for Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of El-Alamein, and was set to include a Hamas delegation headed by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, along with Palestinian factions such as Islamic Jihad and mediators from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar.

“Hamas and the Palestinian factions are expected to begin consultative meetings in Cairo next Saturday” ahead of meetings between the Palestinian movements and the mediators on Sunday, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.

The source said Hamas had “requested to postpone the talks”, calling them meaningless amid “Israeli intransigence”.

Hamas spokesperson Taher al-Nunu said the movement was in “intense consultations” with the mediators to ensure “real results on the ground”.

“The mediators must compel the occupation to halt the assassinations, bombardment and starvation,” and “expedite the entry of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza”, he said, referring to the 15-member board created under the truce deal, which has not yet been allowed to enter the territory it is charged with running.