A deadly Israeli drone attack on a coastal cafe in Gaza City’s western port district has left at least seven Palestinians dead, one child among the victims, and sparked renewed scrutiny of Israeli military actions amid a fragile ceasefire framework, Gaza health authorities confirmed Tuesday.
The brutality of the strike left one victim’s body so severely damaged that medical teams have not been able to identify the person, officials added. Most casualties, multiple of whom are in critical condition, were transported to Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest medical facility. Al-Shifa initially received six corpses and 13 injured people, with a 13th wounded person dying of their injuries later the same evening. Hospital staff noted that one victim suffered a direct missile strike that left the body unidentifiable.
According to Al Jazeera Arabic, the force of the blast threw several dead and injured people into the adjacent Mediterranean Sea, leading observers to warn that the final casualty count could climb higher than currently recorded as recovery operations continue along the coastline.
One eyewitness, Mohammed Alghoul, told Agence France-Presse that Israeli military aircraft launched two missiles directly at the “Sweet and Bitter” cafe, a popular gathering spot located on Gaza’s fishermen’s port in the western part of the city.
The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed the strike in a statement posted to the Telegram messaging platform, framing the operation as a “precise aerial strike” targeting several Hamas commanders in the Shati district west of Gaza City. The IDF claimed the group was plotting an attack against Israeli troops deployed inside the Gaza Strip, saying the airstrike was carried out “to remove the threat to the forces” and that Israeli forces had “taken steps to mitigate harm to civilians”. The military has not yet issued any comment on the dead child, nor has it released any evidence to back up its claims that the people killed in the cafe were Hamas commanders.
Hamas condemned the attack, labeling it a “massacre” that exposes Israel’s open disregard for calls from U.S. President Donald Trump to uphold the existing ceasefire agreement between the two sides. The group has called on international mediators to ramp up pressure on Israel to honor the signed ceasefire deal and the previously agreed roadmap for peace.
The targeted strike comes just 24 hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave approval to the next phase of the U.S.-backed “Board of Peace” plan for Gaza, following talks that Netanyahu described as “deep and constructive” with a delegation led by U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The U.S.-brokered plan requires Hamas to fully disarm in exchange for a full Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel initially rejected Trump’s 15-point proposal even after Hamas agreed to lay down its weapons and transfer administrative control of Gaza to an independent technocratic governing body.
As of Monday, medical sources in Gaza report that the total death toll in the territory has reached at least 73,399 people, with an additional 174,310 injured, since Israel launched its large-scale military campaign in October 2023. Of those fatalities, 1,265 have been killed since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect in October 2025.