“We were sitting there, and the place was full of families and children playing between the tables. Suddenly, the strike hit, and body parts were scattered everywhere. Some bodies fell into the port basin and were recovered and taken to the hospital.”
That is how one witness described to Al Manassa the moment an Israeli strike hit a popular cafe inside Gaza's fishing port on Tuesday evening, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a 13-year-old child, and wounding more than 16 others.
The witness said an Israeli reconnaissance drone fired two missiles in quick succession at the cafe without warning, as families and civilians gathered on the breakwater inside the port.
A woman who was at the cafe when the strike hit told Al Manassa that families had gone there for a brief respite from displacement.
“We fled the heat of the tents and were spending time with our relatives and children somewhere by the sea when the strike happened. People sitting at tables next to us were blown apart, while others suffered injuries all over their bodies and had blood covering their faces. Where are we supposed to go?” she said.
A medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said women and children were among the dead and wounded brought in after the strike.
Some of the victims of the Israeli strike on a cafe in Gaza's fishing harbor, Aug. 18, 2026The Israeli occupation army acknowledged carrying out the strike but said it targeted commanders in the elite ‘Nukhba unit’ of Hamas’ military wing who were holding a meeting inside the cafe.
In a statement on Telegram, the Israeli military said the meeting included a company commander and three platoon commanders, claiming they had “advanced terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli military statement described those targeted as “terrorists” but made no mention of civilian casualties in the strike.
Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately undermining negotiations and efforts to cement the ceasefire, while saying it remained committed to the Gaza agreement and calling on the United States and mediators to press Israel to implement it.
In a statement on Telegram, Hamas called the cafe strike a “bloody escalation” and said it showed the Israeli government’s determination to continue the war and obstruct implementation of the agreement.
Hamas said the timing of the strike, following the recent Cairo meetings, showed that Netanyahu was deliberately trying to derail negotiations and block regional and international efforts to implement US President Donald Trump’s plan and the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.
According to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025 have killed 1,265 Palestinians and wounded 4,198 others.
The agreement followed nearly two years of war that began in October 2023 and left, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 73,000 people dead and over 174,000 wounded.
Israeli force crosses the “yellow line”
In a separate development, Israeli special forces entered the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, crossing the “yellow line” separating areas where the Israeli military is deployed from those where Palestinians are present.
An eyewitness told Al Manassa that a force of about 15 to 20 people, accompanied by a police dog, infiltrated an encampment for displaced people in Al-Shakoush and reached the tent of Sabri Abdel Aal.
Speaking broken Arabic, they questioned Abdel Aal inside his tent about several people before taking him back behind the “yellow line.”
A member of Abdel Aal’s family told Al Manassa that Sabri serves as a colonel in the police force under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
The source said the Israeli force also detained another person from the Zaarab family and took him away before withdrawing from the area.
