6 hours ago
More than 300 people have been killed and hundreds more injured as Israeli military forces hit dozens of targets across Gaza early on Tuesday, in effect ending the increasingly shaky ceasefire that had halted violence in the devastated Palestinian territory since mid-January.
Palestinian health authorities reported a total of 326 deaths by 9.30am local time, seven and a half hours after the strikes began.
In Washington, a White House spokesperson said Israel had consulted the US administration before it carried out the strikes, which Israeli military officials said targeted mid-level Hamas commanders and leadership officials as well as infrastructure belonging to the militant group.
Israeli attacks were reported in northern Gaza, in Gaza City as well as in the central cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. One strike was reported to have killed 17 members of a family in the southern town of Rafah. Another, in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, resulted in the deaths of 13.
Casualties included senior Hamas officials, including political leaders and ministers, as well as many women and children, according to medics and Palestinian officials in Gaza.
In a statement issued shortly after strikes began, Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, said “the gates of hell will open in Gaza” and that Hamas will be hit with a force it has “never seen before” if it did not release all remaining hostages it holds.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said the new air offensive would continue for as long as necessary and could extend beyond airstrikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.
Civil defence teams in Gaza said they were overwhelmed. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams dealt with 86 killed and 134 wounded, but others were brought to hospitals by private cars.
Officials from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza and Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, which have all been extensively damaged in the war, said that altogether they had received about 85 dead. Witnesses reported bloody scenes with “body parts, corpses and the injured filling the floors of the hospitals”.
Hamas and Israel have accused each other of failing to respect the terms of the January ceasefire agreement. Earlier this month, Israel blocked deliveries of aid from entering Gaza and cut off remaining electricity supplies in a bid to pressure Hamas.
Announcing the strikes, the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of “repeated refusal” to release hostages and of rejecting proposals from Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” it said in a statement.
Katz said: “Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza in light of Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages and amid its threats to harm [Israeli] soldiers and Israeli communities. We will not stop fighting until all of the hostages return home and all the war’s aims are achieved.”
The first phase of the ceasefire agreed in January saw 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight dead Israelis returned by militant groups in Gaza in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel has refused to move to a scheduled second phase of the ceasefire, which would have seen a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the release of 59 hostages remaining in Gaza and a definitive end to hostilities. With the backing of the US, Israel has been pushing instead been for the return of all remaining hostages in exchange for further prisoner releases and a 30 to 60 day truce.
Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, said the international community faced “a moral test”.
“Either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” Nunu said.
The strikes come at a tense moment in Israel domestic politics. Netanyahu said on Sunday he would fire Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, a controversial move which immediately prompted renewed accusations of authoritarianism and plans for major protests on Wednesday.
In his statement about the new strikes, Netanyahu said he had approved the new strikes “over the weekend”, suggesting the decision preceded the announcement of his intention to fire Bar.
The White House sought to blame Hamas for the renewed fighting. “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” White House spokesperson Brian Hughes said.
In Gaza, witnesses said Israeli tanks shelled areas in Rafah, forcing many families who had returned to their areas after the ceasefire began to leave their homes and head northward to Khan Younis.
Much of Gaza lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on 7 October 2023 when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages.
The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people and reduced much of the territory to ruins. Ninety percent of houses are damaged or destroyed, and much of the population is displaced. Roads, hospitals, schools, sanitation systems and much else has been reduced to rubble.
Among those killed on Tuesday was senior Hamas official Mohammad Al-Jmasi, a member of the political office, and members of his family, including his grandchildren who were in his house in Gaza City when it was hit by an airstrike, Hamas sources and relatives said. In all, at least five senior Hamas officials were killed along with members of their families.
With Reuters and Associated Press
