Airstrikes across Gaza as Israel vows to target Hamas ‘with increasing military force’
Israel’s latest airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 413 people, the Hamas-run health ministry has said, as the UN’s human rights chief branded the violence as “horrifying”.
A further 562 people were injured in the airstrikes, which put an end to a fragile ceasefire between Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, and Israel as they resumed overnight.
A statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said: “From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force”.
Evacuation orders have been issued by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for a number of areas in Gaza, after the ceasefire had allowed for hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return to their homes across the enclave.
Evacuation orders map
The IDF said on X people should leave the neighbourhoods of Beit Hanoun, Khuza’a, Abasan al-Kabira and al-Jadida and head to shelters in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
That’s despite Gaza City and Khan Younis being among the areas where airstrikes were reported.
Northern Gaza, the Deir al-Balah and Rafah also came under attack.
Many of the dead from the latest strikes were children, according to Palestinian health ministry officials.
The Hamas-run government media office called the attacks a “blatant violation of all international and humanitarian conventions”.
In a statement, the Israeli PM’s office said Mr Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to “act forcefully” against Hamas.
It came after the militant group “repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the US presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators”.
“The operational plan was presented late last week by the IDF and approved by the political echelon,” the statement added.
In a passionate speech on Tuesday, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, said “we want peace”, adding that the choice facing the world was “crystal clear”.
He urged the assembly to “act with us to make peace… make war not acceptable… and [for] ceasefire to prevail”.
Brett Jonathan Miller, Israel’s deputy permanent representative at the UN reaffirmed their commitment to defeating Hamas and bringing home “every last hostage”.
He said a return to fighting was “a necessity” because the militant group had failed to release those being held and “repeatedly rejected all offers made by the US and the mediating countries”.
The UK’s ambassador to Israel, Simon Walters, said on X Israel’s attacks will neither help defeat Hamas nor bring hostages home and will only cause “more death”.
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What happened to the ceasefire?
AP pic
There are 59 Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas – 24 of whom are still believed to be alive.
For their release, Hamas wanted the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and an end to hostilities as part of the second phase of the deal.
Hamas, the militant group running Gaza and whose massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 sparked Israel’s powerful bombing of the enclave, has claimed it is “working with mediators to curb the aggression” seen on Tuesday.
“Hamas adhered to the ceasefire agreement and implemented it precisely, but the Israeli occupation reneged on its commitment and reversed it by resuming aggression and war,” an official said.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign since October 2023, Gazan health officials say.
The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to convene later on Tuesday for a briefing on Gaza.
UN High Commissioner Volker Turk said: “I am horrified by last night’s Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Gaza, which killed hundreds, according to the Ministry of Health in the strip.
“This will add tragedy onto tragedy.”
‘Unilaterally ending the ceasefire’
According to the Reuters news agency, a senior Hamas official said Israel was unilaterally ending the ceasefire agreement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview that the Trump administration was consulted by Israel about the airstrikes on Monday.
‘Not a surprise’
The IDF and Shin Bet described the strikes as “extensive” – and said they were against “terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip”.
Last week, the Gaza health ministry said nine Palestinians, including three journalists, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
A Palestinian source who lives in central Gaza told Sky News’ US correspondent Mark Stone that the strikes were “not a surprise”, saying: “I guess the strongest ones can do whatever they want.”
The source then said “we were sure that this war wouldn’t end” and added: “I wish they (Israel) would open the Rafah border crossing (into Egypt). I wish to leave. I cannot take it anymore.”
Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza. Pic: AP
It comes almost two months after a three-phase ceasefire was reached by Hamas and Israel to pause the war.
Over the first phase of the ceasefire, which lasted six weeks, Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and five Thai nationals, in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But since the first phase officially concluded, both Israel and Hamas have failed to agree on how to progress with the second phase – which would see the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
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Gazans wait for food as blockade continues
‘We are shocked’
Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official, said Mr Netanyahu’s decision to return to war amounts to a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum hit out at the Israeli government’s decision to resume airstrikes in Gaza and accused it of backing out of the ceasefire, saying it “chose to give up on the hostages”.
“We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the group said in a statement.
Mr Netanyahu’s decision to launch fresh airstrikes on the besieged enclave of Gaza comes as he faces mounting pressure at home over his handling of the hostage crisis.
Furthermore, his latest testimony in a long-running corruption trial was cancelled after the strikes, which resumed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
US Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff had proposed extending the first phase of the ceasefire through to the end of Ramadan and Passover or until 20 April, which Hamas rejected.
At the start of March, Israel said it stopped all goods and supplies to Gaza after claiming Hamas was refusing to “accept the Witkoff outline for continuing the talks, which Israel agreed to”.
Hamas called it “a war crime and a blatant attack”.
Five days later, Israel said it had cut off the electricity supply to Gaza.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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