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Deaths reported in Gaza as Israeli military conducts ‘extensive strikes’ despite ceasefire Hundreds reported dead in Gaza as Israel launches widespread strikes
(about 4 hours later)
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blames Hamas’s refusal to release hostages for IDF strikes that are reported to have killed at least 30 people Benjamin Netanyahu’s office threatens more attacks on Hamas, blaming its refusal to release hostages for IDF strikes that Gaza health ministry says have killed at least 200
Israel’s military said it was conducting “extensive strikes on terror targets” in Gaza early on Tuesday, with officials there reporting at least 30 deaths in the most intense airstrikes since the 19 January ceasefire began. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 200 people, Palestinian health authorities said, as attacks hit dozens of targets early on Tuesday, ending a weeks-long standoff over extending the ceasefire that halted fighting in January.
An unnamed senior Hamas official told Reuters that Israel was “unilaterally” ending the ceasefire. Strikes were reported at sites including northern Gaza and Gaza City as well as Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian health ministry officials said many of the dead were children.
Medics reported that at least 30 people had been killed. The Palestinian civil emergency service said Israel carried out at least 35 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. In Gaza City, medics reported that at least eight Palestinians, including children, had been killed. The Israeli military, which said it hit dozens of targets, said the strikes would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond airstrikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not provide more details about the strikes but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement cited by Israeli media that the attacks had “the goal of achieving the war objectives as determined by the political leadership, including the release of all our hostages – both the living and the fallen”. Hamas said Israel had overturned the ceasefire agreement, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain.
“This follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages and its rejection of all the proposals it received from US president’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators,” the statement said. The attacks were far wider in scale than the regular series of drone strikes the Israeli military has said it has conducted against individuals or small groups of suspected militants and follows weeks of failed efforts to agree an extension to the truce agreed on 19 January.
Three houses were hit in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, a building in Gaza City, and targets in Khan Younis and Rafah, according to medics and witnesses. Khalil Degran, a spokesperson for the health ministry based at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza, said at least 200 people had been killed.
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement ended two weeks ago but Israel has refused to implement the scheduled second phase, which is supposed to end with its withdrawal from Gaza, the freedom of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and a definitive end to the conflict. In hospitals strained by 15 months of bombardment, piles of bodies in white plastic sheets could be seen stacked up as casualties were brought in. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams dealt with 86 killed and 134 wounded, but others were brought to hospitals by private cars.
It has also blocked all aid to Gaza over the past two weeks, in violation of the ceasefire deal, in a bid to force Hamas to accept its demands. The move has been condemned by countries including the UK, France and Germany. Officials from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza and Al-Ahly hospital in Gaza City, which have all been extensively damaged in the war, said that altogether they had received about 85 dead. Authorities also reported separately that 16 members of one family in Rafah, in southern Gaza had been killed.
Hamas has said that it would only release hostages if Israel lifted its blockade, withdrew from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and freed more Palestinian prisoners. 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.
More details soon … “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” it said in a statement.
With Reuters In Washington, a White House spokesperson said Israel had consulted the US administration before it carried out the strikes, which the military said targeted mid-level Hamas commanders and leadership officials as well as infrastructure belonging to the militant group.
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.
Witkoff, who has been leading mediation efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, had earlier warned that Hamas must release living hostages immediately “or pay a severe price”.
Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticised the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces 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,” he said.
In Gaza, witnesses contacted by Reuters said Israeli tanks shelled areas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, forcing many families who had returned to their areas after the ceasefire began to leave their homes and head northward to Khan Younis.
Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas had been in Doha as mediators from Egypt and Qatar sought to bridge the gap between the two sides after the end of phase one of the ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais returned by militant groups in Gaza in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
With the backing of the US, Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining 59 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a longer-term truce that would have halted fighting until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.
However, Hamas wants to move to negotiations for a permanent end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, in accordance with the terms of the original ceasefire agreement. “We demand that the mediators hold Netanyahu and the Zionist occupation fully responsible for violating and overturning the agreement,” the group said.
Each side has accused the other of failing to respect the terms of the January ceasefire agreement, and there were multiple incidents during the course of the first phase. But until now, a full return to the fighting had been avoided.
Israel had blocked deliveries of aid from entering Gaza and had threatened on numerous occasions to resume fighting if Hamas did not agree to return the hostages it still holds.
The army did not provide details about the strikes carried out in the early hours of Tuesday but Palestinian health authorities and witnesses contacted by Reuters reported damage in numerous areas of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are living in makeshift shelters or damaged buildings.
A building in Gaza City, in the northern end of the strip was hit and at least three houses were hit in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. In addition, the strikes hit targets in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, according to medics and witnesses.
Among those killed 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.
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 into Gaza.
The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the territory, including the hospital system.
With Reuters and Associated Press