Israel launched its most intense attack on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday since a January ceasefire. Rescuers reported 220 deaths. Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to ‘restart the war’ after a stalemate over extending the ceasefire.
The White House has confirmed that Israel consulted with US President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the wave of attacks. Rescuers say most of the dead in the attacks were women, children and the elderly.
“The operation was ordered after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages, as well as after rejecting all proposals from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Israel will now take action against Hamas with increasing military force.”
An Israeli official said the military operation was expected to “continue for as long as necessary” and “expand beyond airstrikes.” “Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to reverse the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas said in a statement. Accusing the Israeli prime minister of using the conflict as a political “lifeline” to survive internal crises, Hamas said, “Netanyahu’s decision to resume the war is a decision to sacrifice the prisoners in his custody and execute them.”
AFP footage showed people rushing stretchers with injured people, including young children, to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Bodies, covered in white sheets, were also taken to the hospital morgue.
Families urge Israel PM to ‘stop the killing’ of Gaza hostages
The families of Israeli captives in Gaza demanded Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages” after Israel launched its deadliest strikes on the territory since a January ceasefire.
“The families of the hostages demand a meeting this morning with the prime minister, the defence minister and the head of the negotiation team, in which they will be assured how the hostages will be protected from the military pressure and how they intend to bring them back,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“The families of the hostages will demand: Stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages now! First, return them — then everything else.” The captives’ families called for a protest outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem later on Tuesday. Israel vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until the return of all hostages as it unleashed its most intense strikes since the ceasefire began on January 19.
“Families of hostages have been pleading for meetings with public officials responsible for the fate of their loved ones. Their pleas have gone unanswered,” the families said in a statement. “Now it becomes clear — the public officials did not meet with them because they were planning the explosion of the ceasefire, which could sacrifice their family members.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack which sparked the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
