(MENAFN- Live Mint) Israel said it has resumed the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by United States President Donald Trump late on Sunday (local time), Bloomberg reported. This comes after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in heavy firing over the weekend, amid both sides accusing each other of breaching the deal, it added.

The IDF said that around 9:30 p.m. Israel time on Sunday, it had“begun renewed enforcement of the ceasefire” and warned it would“respond firmly to any violation.”

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Israel launched strikes against Hamas in Gaza and suspended aid shipments on Sunday after blaming the Palestinian group for an ambush that killed two soldiers in the southern part of the strip.

The IDF said it responded by hitting weapons-storage facilities and other sites. It also said it dismantled several kilometers of underground tunnels.

At least some aid supplies have now resumed, though the key border crossing of Rafah remains shut.

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The White House expected the deal to be messy but is optimistic it won't collapse, as per the report. Donald Trump presented the ceasefire as the best chance yet of ending the war in Gaza, which has devastated the Palestinian territory and destabilised the wider Middle East.

“It's going to be complicated,” US Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Sunday.“The best case scenario - meaning if this thing absolutely produces that sustainable long term peace the president and I hope it will - there's going to be fits and starts. Hamas is going to fire on Israel. Israel's going to have to respond, of course. We think it has the best chance for sustainable peace but, even if it does, that it's going to have hills and valleys.”

Vance said he might go to the region this week as part of US diplomatic efforts to ensure the truce is maintained.

“Somebody from the administration is certainly going to be over there in the next few days,” he said.“It might be me.”

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Meanwhile, Hamas said it remained committed to the truce and that it had lost contact with, and therefore couldn't be held responsible for, any Palestinian fighters operating in Rafah. Donald Trump suggested that could be true.

“We want to make sure it's very peaceful with Hamas,” he told journalists on Sunday.“As you know, they've been quite rambunctious. They've been doing some shooting. We think maybe the leadership isn't involved in that - rebels withing. Either way, it has to be handled properly.”

Under Donald Trump's internationally-backed plan, Hamas will disarm and cede what remains of its governance to a foreign-supervised alternative Palestinian administration. Hamas has yet to agree to those conditions, which are meant to form a key part of the next stage of negotiations to formally end the conflict.

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In the first agreement, signed 10 days ago after intense talks in Sharm El-Sheikh mediated by Qatar, Turkey and Egypt as well as the US, Hamas said it would release all 48 hostages it held and the IDF would begin its withdrawal. All 20 living hostages were freed a week ago, alongside almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Yet Hamas has only released the remains of 12 deceased captives. It says it needs specialist help to locate the others amid the rubble of Gaza, but Israel accuses the group of stalling.

Israeli troops and tanks have so far redeployed to a“yellow line” that still leaves just over half the shattered enclave under their control. That's enabled Palestinian civilians to begin returning to cities such as Gaza City and Khan Younis with a measure of safety.

The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said the Israeli army's Sunday strikes killed 44 people across the Gaza Strip, citing medical sources.

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In Sunday's incident, Palestinians fired anti-armor rockets and guns at Israeli troops operating in Rafah, a southern city on the Israeli side of the yellow line, the army said. Two soldiers were injured as well as the two killed.

The Israeli air forces conducted strikes as far away as Gaza City in the north of the strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he'd ordered that“strong action be taken against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip.”

Aid supplies into Gaza have picked up since the ceasefire started, but not on the scale that the United Nations say is needed. A UN-backed monitor declared a famine in parts of the territory in late August, citing Israel's blockade on essential goods such as food and medicine. Israel has denied the crisis reached the point of famine.

Trump's deal won the support of Arab, Muslim and Western powers, several of which have voiced interest in contributing to a post-war stabilisation force in Gaza.

A multi-national task-force is now assembling in Israel, with military delegates from at least two other countries joining the US lead, according to an official who requested anonymity. Germany's defense ministry said on Saturday it had sent three soldiers to the Civil Military Coordination Centre in southern Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Saturday he plans to run for election again in 2026, may not be in a rush to resume a conflict that has strained the Israeli economy and forced tens of thousands of reservists to leave their jobs and serve for long stints in the military.

The current conflict was triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas which killed 1,200 Israeli nationals, and took 250 hostages. Since then, Israel's brutal offensive, categorised by the United Nations as a genocide, has claimed the lives of over 68,000 Palestinians, as per local health ministry data.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)

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