Israeli forces launched deadly air attacks on Tuesday through the Gaza Strip, ending a temporary cease-fire with Hamas that started in January, and increasing the prospect of a return to war to all.
More than 400 people, including children, were killed in strikes, said the Gaza Ministry of Health. These figures did not distinguish between civilians and combatants – but the implacable Israeli bombing produced one of the tolls in a most deadly day of the war.
The attacks occurred after weeks of unsuccessful negotiations aimed at extending the fragile ceasefire, which interrupted 15 months of devastating fighting on the territory. The first phase of the truce expired in early March, but it was widely held while diplomats worked to negotiate an extension to release the surviving Israeli hostages and end the war.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that he had ordered the military operation after Hamas’ “repeated refusal” to release the remaining captives seized during the October 7, 2023 assault against Israel and the dead hostages. Of the remaining 59 in Gaza, less than half would be alive.
“Now, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force,” said the Prime Minister’s office.
In an address later Tuesday, Netanyahu suggested that more Israeli attacks in Gaza arrived and would be made in tandem with negotiations with Hamas.
“This is only the start,” he said. “We will continue to fight to achieve all the goals of war.”
Hamas officials argued that Israel had cheerely reversed the truce, but did not immediately respond militarily to strikes. It was not clear if the Palestinian armed group – severely weakened after more than a year of war – would reflect or head towards the negotiating table.
Suhail al-Hindi, member of the Hamas political bureau, said that the group is still hoping to restore the ceasefire but reserves the right to respond. “How to react is left to those who have on the ground,” he said during a telephone interview. “They know and understand how to respond to the occupation.”
Gideon Saar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, said that the strike decision was made several days ago, after Hamas rejected two proposals proposed by Steve Witkoff, the envoy of President Trump of the Middle East.
“It is not a one -day operation,” said Mr. Saar in a speech on Tuesday in Jerusalem. “We will continue a military action in the coming days. We ended up in a dead end, without released hostages and without military action. This situation cannot continue. “
In Israel, relatives of the hostages said that the renewed Israeli attacks had increased their fears that the remaining captives never come back alive. They accused Mr. Netanyahu and his government of abandoning hostages, and some have gathered in rallies requiring an immediate agreement with Hamas to ensure their freedom.
“The military action endangers the life of the hostages and hurts them directly,” said Alexander Troufanov, a hostage released during the recent truce, to a crowd in Tel Aviv. “But this morning, I was horrified to see that decision -makers choose not to listen.”
The hostages of Gaza “cross hell because of the decision to return to the fighting,” he added.
The Trump administration – which sought to negotiate an agreement between Israel and Hamas – seemed to support Israel’s decision to resume large -scale attacks in Gaza. Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the White House, said that Israel had consulted the United States before launching its assault.
Brian Hughes, spokesperson for the National Security Council of Washington, blamed Hamas for the renewed attacks of Israel, claiming on Tuesday in a statement that “Hamas could have released hostages to prolong the ceasefire but rather chose refusal and war”.
Israeli air strikes in Gaza started slightly before 2:30 a.m. local time. Their ferocity recalled the first days of war when Israel launched heavy attacks in the enclave. Images of the territory have shown that people using pocket lamps to search the rubble across the rubble, bodies aligned in bags and distraught families fleeing with their packaged on trucks.
Ramez smile, a resident of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, said that he woke up to the sound of explosions, followed by the ambulance rush.
“All Gaza trembled,” said Mr. Souri.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 48,000 Gazans have been killed since the start of the war, and millions of people have been moved.
Many Gazans had returned to their devastated districts during the ceasefire, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense. They were sheltered together in the few houses that remained standing, he said.
“There are whole families who have been buried under the rubble,” said Basal.
UNICEF said that among people killed, there were 130 children, the greatest number of deaths in one day of death by children in the past year in Gaza. Air strikes hit shelters where they slept with their families, UNICEF said.
Suzanne Abu Daqqa, who lives in Abasan, a southern suburbs of Khan Younis, described a sudden wave of explosions in the middle of the night. She said she rushed to check the news, just like her family.
“Then we saw that it was not only in our neighborhood – it was everywhere in Gaza,” said Abu Daqqa.
Some bombs have struck Abasan, she said. On Tuesday morning, the Israeli army called on residents of the region to evacuate, appealing to a “dangerous combat zone”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, spokesperson for the Israeli army, said the bombing had targeted “Hamas’ military commanders, leaders of the leadership and the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas”.
Hamas said two of the high officials of the killed group had been members of its political bureau. Others have held security stations, including one who was the director of the dreaded internal security agency in Hamas. Another militant group, the Palestinian Islamic jihad, also said that the spokesman for his military wing had been killed.
Before the air strikes, Israel and Hamas had tried to reach an agreement on the second phase of the truce. During the first phase, Hamas released more than 30 hostages and the remains of eight others, in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
During the second phase, Israeli forces had to fully withdraw from Gaza and Hamas was to release the surviving hostages seized during the attack on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel, removed 251 others and ignited the fighting.
The two parties could not agree on the second phase of the ceasefire. Israel always promises to destroy Hamas and insists on the demilitarization of Gaza. Hamas has largely refused to dissolve its armed battalions.
The criticisms of Mr. Netanyahu argued that the Prime Minister had avoided a viable agreement with Hamas to end the war and release more hostages in order to preserve his political coalition, which includes far -right supporters of the long -term Israeli domination in Gaza.
Daniel B. Shapiro, a former American ambassador to Israel, said on Tuesday: “Hamas’ insistence to preserve the hostages as a lever effect, and the politically motivated refusal of Netanyahu to carry out phase 2 of the ceaser, which called at the end of the war and to the release of all living hostages, led to this climbing.”
Israel killed thousands of Hamas fighters and destroyed a large part of its tunnel network, which had been used, among other things, to store weapons. Hamas’ ability to shoot rockets in Israel has also been undermined.
Mr. Saar, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, suggested that Israel would return to the negotiating table if Hamas made major concessions on the future of Gaza.
“If we could achieve the same objectives in a different way, a lot,” he said. “But if it is impossible to move forward in this way, you resume military operations.”
Hamas officials have sworn that this would not happen – seeming to leave both sides in the same position as before. “War and destruction will not bring the enemy what they have failed to browse the negotiations,” said Izzat Al-Rishq, an official in Hamas, in a statement.
The reports were brought by Adam RASGON,, Ephrat Livni,, Eric Schmitt,, Julian E. Barnes,, Hiba yazbek And Johnatan Reiss.
