IDF detects failed rocket launch from Gaza, amid diplomatic moves toward phase 2 of truce

Rocket falls short of Israel, army says; Gazan woman, boy said hurt by IDF fire; Herzog, PM meet Board of Peace rep; Spanish PM wants to send ‘peacekeeping troops to Palestine’

The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that it detected a failed rocket launch from the area of Gaza City toward Israeli territory.

There were no reported casualties from the launch, a now-rare instance of attempted rocket fire into Israel. Prior to the war in Gaza, Hamas and other terror groups regularly fired rockets from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

The botched launch came as officials from Israel and other countries prepared on Thursday for the onset of the Gaza ceasefire’s second phase, which the US is planning to begin next week.

Phase two is meant to establish longer-term governance and security frameworks for the enclave. Meanwhile, instability persists in the Strip, which is divided between Israeli and Hamas control. On Wednesday, the UN agency serving Palestinians, UNRWA, announced that it was letting hundreds of employees go due to a severe funding shortfall.

Even as phase two is set to begin, the rocket launch marked one of the latest tests of the shaky ceasefire that took effect on October 10. According to the military, the projectile fell inside Gaza, near a hospital. Hebrew media reported that the rocket fell near IDF outposts in the area.

The IDF said it carried out a targeted strike on the launch site, adding that it viewed any attempt by terror groups in Gaza to carry out attacks against Israeli forces or civilians with “great severity.”

Further highlighting the truce’s fragility, Hamas-affiliated Palestinian health authorities said two people, a woman and a boy, had been injured on Thursday in two separate shooting incidents by Israeli forces in southern and northern Gaza. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the report.

Another IDF strike on Wednesday, targeting a “senior terrorist,” missed its mark, the Ynet news site reported, without citing sources. According to the report, the military is investigating why the assassination attempt failed. The identity of the Hamas operative targeted in the strike remains unclear.

Two people were reportedly killed in the strike, which was carried out after Hamas operatives opened fire toward an area in the northern Gaza Strip where Israeli forces were operating.

On Wednesday, multiple sources told The Times of Israel that US President Donald Trump aims to begin the second phase of the ceasefire, even as the body of one slain Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili, remains held in Gaza. Trump is set to announce the Board of Peace, which will supervise Gaza’s on-the-ground government.

Trump’s move comes as other key pieces of the ceasefire have yet to occur, such as Hamas’s disarmament, which the terror group has rejected, and the opening of the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

But Israel is demonstrating openness to the Board of Peace. On Thursday, President Isaac Herzog met former UN envoy to the Middle East Nikolay Mladenov, who is expected to serve as the board’s representative on the ground in Gaza, The Times of Israel learned.

Netanyahu will also be meeting Mladenov, according to Channel 14, which is close with the premier’s circle and staunchly supportive of him.

Spain seeks peacekeeping role in Gaza

Also Thursday, Spain signaled that it is ready to send troops to the Gaza Strip for peacekeeping “when the opportunity presents itself,” just as it is willing to deploy forces to Ukraine, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

“I will propose to parliament, when the opportunity presents itself, that we send peacekeeping troops to Palestine, once we can see how to advance this task of pacification,” he told a gathering of Spanish ambassadors in Madrid.

“Of course, we have not forgotten Palestine and the Gaza Strip… Spain must actively participate in rebuilding hope in Palestine. The situation there remains intolerable.”

The Spanish government, which recognized a Palestinian state in 2024, has been one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, launched following the terror group’s onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel has opposed another harsh critic, Turkey, playing a role on the ground in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said that a “dire” financial crisis had forced it to fire hundreds of Gazan staff who had left the territory.

“On Tuesday, 571 local UNRWA staff, outside Gaza, were informed that they were being separated from the agency with immediate effect,” a spokesperson told AFP in an email.

For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has provided aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Israel has long been a harsh critic of the agency and has alleged ties between its staff and terror groups, including employees who took part in the October 7 atrocities. The government passed legislation barring UNRWA from Israel and curtailing its work in Gaza and the West Bank.

The agency has seen the voluntary contributions it relies on dwindle as it has become the focus of that criticism, causing what the spokesperson called an “unprecedented financial crisis.”

While the work UNRWA was mandated to do cost around $880 million in 2025, the agency received only around $570 million in contributions, the spokesperson said.

“As things stand, we expect a substantial shortfall in 2026,” they added.

The spokesperson stressed that UNRWA, which has seen more than 300 of its employees killed in Gaza since the start of the war, still had around 12,000 staff working inside the territory.

All of the staff affected by this week’s announcement had originally worked in the Gaza Strip, but had managed to leave early in the war. Most had been unable to carry out their duties remotely since leaving Gaza, but had remained on UNRWA’s payroll until last March, when they were placed on exceptional unpaid leave, the spokesperson said.

“The affected staff have been without pay for over 10 months, and it is impossible to foresee when or if they could resume their duties due to circumstances entirely beyond UNRWA’s control,” the spokesperson said.

Hamas on Wednesday slammed the decision as “unjust and a violation of the fundamental rights of these employees.”

“We call on UNRWA… to assume its role and responsibilities towards the Palestinian people and its employees,” it added.