IDF says attack followed Hamas forces killing two soldiers, but both sides say they are committed to ceasefire

Israel launched waves of lethal airstrikes on Sunday and cut off all aid into Gaza “until further notice” after a reported attack by Hamas, in escalations that marked the most serious threat so far to the increasingly fragile ceasefire in the devastated territory.

Two Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed in the Hamas attack. Palestinian officials said dozens died in the retaliatory airstrikes.

With no law, order or any alternative administration under the ceasefire, the group is using violence to deter rivals

Throughout Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, aid officials working in the territory avoided naming Hamas in conversations they suspected might be intercepted, instead referring to the militant Islamist group as the “de facto authority”.

This careful euphemism for Hamas, which violently seized power in 2007, captured an important truth. Though the group was a less obvious presence in the last months of the conflict, in the absence of any alternative, it remained the closest the increasingly devastated territory had to a ruler.

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Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of ceasefire violations amid tensions over the flow of aid into Gaza and warnings that the humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory risks deteriorating further.

The ceasefire deal signed last week between Israel and Hamas raised hopes of a surge of humanitarian aid finally reaching the territory after two years of war, but most restrictions have remained in place, throttling the supply of desperately needed assistance.

Destruction or ongoing control by Israeli forces means roads to areas worst hit by hunger are virtually impassable

Even if the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza opens on Thursday, NGOs face big challenges distributing supplies to Gaza City and its surroundings in the north, the areas worst hit by hunger, experts say.

Key roads are virtually impassable due to the massive destruction across the devastated territory – or are still controlled by Israeli forces. Any truck that breaks down is likely to be instantly looted.

Aid agencies and UN officials call for more entry points to allow ‘thousands of trucks’ to enter devastated territory

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Aid agencies and the United Nations are calling for Israel to open more crossings into Gaza to allow “thousands of trucks” to enter the devastated territory every day.

Preparations are being made to allow convoys through the southern Rafah crossing with Egypt on Thursday, the first such access through the critical entry point since May last year.

In 1982, Ronald Reagan picked up the phone to Menachem Begin to tell him to end a war. There are lessons from history and we need to learn them

So, which year are we in? A US president, after months of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to end an Israeli military offensive that has reduced swaths of a Middle Eastern city to rubble, leaving thousands dead and prompting global outrage. For months, the UN has looked on, impotent, as Israeli air raids and artillery shelling has pummelled apartment blocks and refugee camps beside the Mediterranean. The Israeli offensive’s target, according to its architect, is a “kingdom of terror”.

The offensive has come after a series of attacks on Israel. Now, under pressure from the White House, the Israeli prime minister, a rightwinger with a gift for populist rhetoric and an intense sense of historic Zionist mission, has agreed to a ceasefire. So too have the Palestinian armed factions, which have faced the massive firepower of the Israeli military. These will now be forced to disarm and many will go into exile. A peacekeeping force is being organised by the US to stabilise the situation.

Jason Burke is the international security correspondent of the Guardian and author of The Revolutionists