Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had ordered the air strikes after Hamas's “repeated refusal” to release the remaining hostages it was holding. “This is just the beginning,” he said.
Israeli forces launched deadly air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, ending a temporary ceasefire with Hamas that began in January and raising the specter of a return to full-scale war.
Gaza's Health Ministry said the strikes had killed more than 400 people, including children. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but the relentless Israeli bombing resulted in one of the deadliest single-day casualties of the war.
The attacks came after weeks of fruitless negotiations aimed at extending a fragile cease-fire that has halted 15 months of devastating fighting in the territory. The first phase of the truce expired in early March but has largely held as diplomats worked to broker an extension to free the surviving Israeli hostages and end the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had ordered the military operation after Hamas “repeatedly refused” to release the remaining prisoners taken in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the bodies of dead hostages. Of the 59 remaining in Gaza, fewer than half are believed to be alive.
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu suggested that Israel would launch new attacks in the Gaza Strip and that they would be carried out simultaneously with talks with Hamas.
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “We will continue to fight to achieve all the goals of the war.”
