Israel launched a major assault on Gaza, breaking the fragile ceasefire of two months between its forces and Hamas.
Israeli air strikes across the territory early on Tuesday killed more than 200 Palestinians, said the Gaza government media office.
The dead included at least 77 people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and at least 20 people in Gaza City in the North, medical sources in Al Jazeera said.
Israel Strikes also struck locations in the center of Deir El-Balah and Rafah in the South.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered soldiers to take “strong measures” against Hamas for his refusal to release captives taken from Israel or accept offers to extend the ceasefire.
“Israel will now act against Hamas with increasing military force,” said the Prime Minister’s office in a statement.
The Israeli army said on Telegram that it produced “in -depth strikes on terrorist targets” belonging to Hamas.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, said that it considered Israel’s attacks as a unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire that started on January 19.
“Netanyahu and her extremist government decide to overthrow the cease-fire agreement, exposing prisoners to Gaza to an unknown spell,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.
The armed group of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) accused Israel of “deliberately sabotage all efforts to reach a cease-fire”.
“We affirm that what Netanyahu and his barbaric army have failed to achieve in 15 months of crimes and blood effutes, they will not succeed in achieving again, thanks to the firmness of our oppressed and the courage of our Mujahideen in the fields of …
Ahmed Abu Rizq, a teacher in Gaza, said that he and his family woke up to the sound of “Israeli strikes everywhere”.
“We were afraid, our children were afraid. [on] ourselves. And the ambulance began to run from one street to another, “Abu Rizq told Al Jazeera, adding that families started to arrive at the local hospital with the” remains of their children “in their hands.
Report of Amman, in Jordan, Hamdah Salhut of Al Jazeera said that even if Israel had accused Hamas of having rejected various proposals made by negotiators, talks had been blocked after Netanyahu refused to start negotiations on phase two of the cease-fire agreement on February 6.
“Several Israeli analysts, several in the political opposition and several within the government of Netanyahu have said that it was the plan from the start, a resumption of fighting, to return to the war on a large scale,” said Salhut.
“And in fact, there is a new staff chief of the army, who said that 2025 was going to be a year of war – noting that Israel still has many objectives to achieve with regard to the Gaza Strip, which means that they have in no way finished their military action.”
Hamas has released around three dozen captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners since the start of the ceasefire.
Negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which would see the release of nearly 60 remaining captives and the creation of a permanent ceasefire, had been an impasse on the insistence of Israel that the first stage was extended until mid-April.
Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident stock market at the Middle East Council on World Affairs, said that it was not clear if the attacks marked a single offensive or “the start of a wider campaign”.
“The most important element of which, from the point of view of Israel, was the negotiations on the second phase leading to a sustainable ceasefire and to a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops of the Gaza Strip,” said Rabbani in Al Jazeera.
“And this is something that the Israeli government has repeatedly said that it would not do.”
“In other words, [Israel] Signed an agreement, knowing that he would refuse to implement it, “he said.
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Israel has consulted the President of the United States Donald Trump about strikes.
“As President Trump said, Hamas, Houthis, Iran – all those who seek to terrorize not only Israel but the United States – will see a price to pay, and all hell will stand out,” Leavitt told Fox News.
