Israel Strikes Targets Throughout Gaza as Ceasefire Unravels

Israel launched a series of airstrikes overnight across Gaza, shattering a nearly two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to act “with increasing military strength” and said the Palestinian militant group had repeatedly refused to release the hostages it’s holding.

The Israeli military is “attacking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip in order to achieve the objectives of the war,” he said early on Tuesday. As well freeing the roughly 60 captives still in Gaza, Israel wants Hamas to disarm and step down from power in the territory.

Hamas said at least 322 people had been killed or were missing since the airstrikes began.

Israel added that its decision to restart military action in Gaza was necessary because Hamas, an Iran-backed group designated a terrorist organization by the US, had rejected proposals put forward by President Donald Trump’s administration to make the ceasefire permanent.

The bombardment is the fiercest since a truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US started in January. It officially ended in early March — with Hamas having released around 35 hostages and Israel freeing more than 1,000 imprisoned Palestinians. There was no official extension of the deal as the warring sides disagreed on the way forward during talks through the mediators.

Israel had warned that it could restart military operations if Hamas didn’t agree to release more hostages. Of those remaining, Israel has said that around 25 are alive.

After the strikes began, Hamas said Netanyahu had decided to “overturn the ceasefire agreement, putting the captives in Gaza at an unknown fate.”

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition said Israel had no choice.

“Avoiding military pressure would have only allowed Hamas to bide its time and re-build,” said Ofir Sofer, a minister and member of the Religious Zionism party, which is led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “The decision we took is the right one. The ceasefire did not collapse – it ended. We have full backing from the US.”

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