In early August 2026, Israeli forces killed at least 26 Palestinians in Gaza over a single weekend, including women and children. Nineteen of those deaths happened on Saturday alone. This wave of violence came right after a new peace plan was announced — and right after Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, agreed to a plan to give up its weapons Al Jazeera.

A ceasefire is an agreement to stop fighting. A disarmament plan is an agreement to hand over weapons. Both were supposed to be moving forward. In late July, a group called the Board of Peace and the International Stabilization Force (ISF) — a multinational security team meant to keep order — announced a 15-point roadmap to carry out the next stage of the ceasefire. Israel had already agreed to let an international security force enter Gaza under President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan Reuters. Hamas accepted the plan to gradually give up its weapons. Trump called Hamas's acceptance a "monumental step towards security and stability."

But Israeli strikes kept happening every day. On August 1, an airstrike hit near al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah AP News. That same day, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians and destroyed two warehouses near a hospital that reportedly stored medicine Reuters. On August 2, strikes killed at least 18 more Reuters.

Israel's government has clear objections to how the peace plan is structured. Officials said they have "serious security concerns" about the phased approach — meaning the plan unfolds step by step rather than all at once. Israeli media reported that the government wants Hamas to give up all its weapons immediately, hand them to a Western country, and that no Palestinian group should be involved in managing the process Al Jazeera. Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said Israeli forces would not leave until there is "complete demilitarisation of Hamas."

That position puts Israel at odds with the roadmap, which imagines Palestinian institutions playing a role in running post-war Gaza through the ISF framework. The disagreement is not about small details. It is about the central question: who will control security in Gaza after the war, and will any Palestinian group be allowed to have a role in that?

The human cost of this deadlock is severe. Gaza authorities say at least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire was reached Reuters. The UN Human Rights Office has documented that Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 1,000 Palestinians, including 202 children, and wounded more than 9,230 UN Human Rights Office. Ceasefire monitors say Israel's continued bombing amounts to breaking the October agreement Al Jazeera.

Israeli politics add fuel to the friction. General elections are set for October 2026. Resistance to the deal among Israeli politicians comes from both real security fears and the political cost of looking like they are giving in before Hamas is fully disarmed. An Israeli minister said publicly that there was "no deal to halt the attacks" Reuters. That statement, made at the same time as the roadmap announcement, captures the core tension: the peace process is producing paperwork, while the military campaign continues on its own.

Palestinian analysts are deeply skeptical. Eyad al-Qarra told Al Jazeera that Palestinian groups accepting the next phase would be an "uncalculated risk" that Israel could use as an excuse to launch a wider war on Gaza. Mtanes Shehadeh, an Israeli affairs expert, said Israel's government treats the Gaza understandings as a "tactical manoeuvre" — a temporary step — and wants to continue the killing, starvation, and blockade of Gaza while blocking real progress in the second phase of the agreement Al Jazeera.

The broader context here is a pattern that has repeated since the October ceasefire. Israel escalated attacks in May 2026 after a separate truce with Iran, killing 120 Palestinians, including eight women and 13 children, saying Hamas was rearming Reuters. Each time, Israel has pointed to ongoing militant activity and weapons sites as the reason. The Israeli military (IDF) has said it controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip since restarting ground operations in March 2025 IDF. But that military control has not led to a political solution, and the ceasefire has not stopped the violence.

What is happening now is a test of whether the 15-point roadmap can hold up against two positions that do not fit together. Israel wants total, externally managed disarmament before it pulls out. The ceasefire plan assumes a gradual process where both sides take steps at the same time. The multinational force Israel agreed to let in is supposed to bridge that gap. Whether it can is the question the coming weeks will answer. October's elections will sharpen every decision.