Israeli airstrikes overnight Saturday and into Sunday killed at least nine people, according to local health officials, and a senior Israeli minister vowed that strikes in the territory will not stop despite Hamas signing a US-backed disarmament plan and earlier reports that Israel agreed to halt attacks.

The US announced Friday that the terror group had agreed to the Board of Peace’s disarmament plan, which envisions Israeli strikes ending immediately once it is in place, as well as the transfer of all weapons to a Palestinian police force under the authority of the new technocratic government in Gaza. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the other main terror faction in the Strip, reportedly also signed off on the plan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to officially comment on the development, leaving top ministers and anonymous “senior officials” to voice Israel’s disapproval of the plan, despite US President Donald Trump’s assurance that Israel was “very happy” with the deal. Adding to the confusion, a senior Palestinian figure close to the Trump administration said Saturday that Israel had agreed to halt its strikes in Gaza, only to delete the post less than two hours later as Israel stepped up its attacks in the Strip.

Speaking to Army Radio on Sunday, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said that Israel has not signed off on any such agreement.

Cohen, a member of Netanyahu’s top-level security cabinet, said that “there has not been a cabinet discussion [on the Gaza plan] in the past 72 hours.”

“Any armed actor who operates, threatens, that is involved with terrorism, we will eliminate him,” he added, voicing doubt that that Hamas would actually go along with the plan and hand over its weapons, while saying Israel would like to see the group doing so.

“We will of course give the opportunity” for the plan to succeed, Cohen said, noting that Israel preferred that Hamas disarm through diplomatic agreements.

Joining Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group has also agreed to the disarmament plan, according to Arab sources cited by the Saudi Al-Arabiya newspaper.

Islamic Jihad did not officially comment on the report. The group is closely linked to and funded by Iran,........

© The Times of Israel