At least 250 Palestinians reported killed by renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
At least 250 Palestinians have been reported killed by renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation had been carried out “to achieve the war objectives set by the political leadership, including the release of all the hostages”. Hamas described the attack as a “blatant violation of all international and humanitarian conventions.”
In a statement Netanyahu said the attack had been agreed jointly with Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz “after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all the proposals it received from the US president’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators.”
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the prime minister’s office said.
The Hamas-run government media office in the territory called on the international community to “break their silence and take immediate action” to prevent the Israeli attacks, and said rescue operations were being hampered by a lack of fuel. Israel controls the entry of goods and services into the Gaza Strip, and has been blockading humanitarian aid, having recently also cut off electricity supplies.
Palestinian health ministry officials claimed many of the dead were children, while the Israeli military claimed it hit dozens of what it termed “terror targets”. Access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip has been limited by Israel, and it has not been possible to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
In Israel the Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticised the latest move, saying the Israeli government had “chosen to abandon the hostages” adding that “military pressure endangers both the hostages and the soldiers.”
59 hostages are believed to still remain in captivity in Gaza, having been seized by Hamas and other groups during the deadly 7 October 2023 attack inside southern Israel, when 251 people are believed to have been abducted. Not all of the remaining hostages are thought by Israeli authorities to be alive.
Key events
Associated Press and Reuters are carrying an updated death toll from overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, reporting that Gaza’s health ministry has said the Israeli strikes across the territory have killed at least 326 people.
More details soon …
At least 250 Palestinians reported killed by renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
At least 250 Palestinians have been reported killed by renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation had been carried out “to achieve the war objectives set by the political leadership, including the release of all the hostages”. Hamas described the attack as a “blatant violation of all international and humanitarian conventions.”
In a statement Netanyahu said the attack had been agreed jointly with Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz “after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all the proposals it received from the US president’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators.”
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the prime minister’s office said.
The Hamas-run government media office in the territory called on the international community to “break their silence and take immediate action” to prevent the Israeli attacks, and said rescue operations were being hampered by a lack of fuel. Israel controls the entry of goods and services into the Gaza Strip, and has been blockading humanitarian aid, having recently also cut off electricity supplies.
Palestinian health ministry officials claimed many of the dead were children, while the Israeli military claimed it hit dozens of what it termed “terror targets”. Access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip has been limited by Israel, and it has not been possible to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
In Israel the Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticised the latest move, saying the Israeli government had “chosen to abandon the hostages” adding that “military pressure endangers both the hostages and the soldiers.”
59 hostages are believed to still remain in captivity in Gaza, having been seized by Hamas and other groups during the deadly 7 October 2023 attack inside southern Israel, when 251 people are believed to have been abducted. Not all of the remaining hostages are thought by Israeli authorities to be alive.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces have been carrying out operations in Tubas and Bethlehem inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It also reports that at least 17 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in Nablus.
The renewed Israeli strikes on Gaza are the subject of our First Edition newsletter today. My colleague Archie Bland writes:
The first explosions were heard in north-west Gaza, as many ate their pre-dawn meals during the holy month of Ramadan. The airstrikes hit Gaza City in the north, Deir al-Balah in the centre, and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south. Israel claimed that it had hit “terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
Witnesses and photographs taken at Gaza’s hospitals suggested that many civilians, including children, were among the dead, with piles of bodies stacked up under white plastic sheets. AFP quoted Ramez Alammarin, 25, who described carrying children to a hospital near Gaza City. “They unleashed the fire of hell again on Gaza,” he said. “Bodies and limbs are on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them. They bombed a building in the area and there are still martyrs and wounded under the rubble … fear and terror. Death is better than life.”
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to blame Hamas’ refusal to release the remaining hostages without moving to a second phase for the resumption of strikes in Gaza; Donald Trump recently said that unless Hamas immediately released all remaining hostages, “not a single Hamas member will be safe”. He also appeared to threaten civilians in Gaza.
But Hamas has been reluctant to give up its sole remaining source of leverage without a move to the second phase of talks. It said last week that it was ready to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and the bodies of four others, but US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff rejected that offer and said that Hamas had privately made unrealistic demands.
You can read more here: Tuesday briefing – major Israeli airstrikes break fragile peace
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza sent over the news wires.
Associated Press reports that the Israeli military has ordered people to evacuate eastern Gaza and move toward the centre of the territory after Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes.
The orders issued on Tuesday indicate Israel could launch renewed ground operations.
Despite pleas from the hostage families, Israel has said will fight on in Gaza for “as long as the hostages are not returned”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday after Israel resumed air strikes on the battered territory.
“We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved,” Katz said.
Apart from the release of the remaining hostages, Israel’s other main war aim is to crush Hamas.
Statement from the families of hostages
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement on Tuesday condemning the renewed attacks in Gaza.
The claim that the war is being renewed for the release of the hostages is a complete deception – military pressure endangers the hostages and soldiers,” the statement read. “We must return to the cease-fire.”
For a full take of events, please read this dispatch from our correspondents, Jason Burke in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza.
More than 200 people have been killed and hundreds more injured as Israeli military forces hit dozens of targets across Gaza early on Tuesday, effectively ending the increasingly shaky ceasefire that had halted violence in the devastated Palestinian territory since mid January.
Palestinian health authorities reported a total of 235 deaths and 300 injured by 7am local time, five hours after the strikes began.
The full report is below:
Hamas sources say Israel strikes killed general who headed Gaza interior ministry
Two Hamas sources told Agence France Presse on Tuesday that Israel’s overnight strikes on Gaza killed general Mahmud Abu Watfa, who headed the militant movement’s interior ministry in the territory.
Abu Watfa, who headed Hamas’s police and internal security services in the Gaza Strip, was killed in a strike on Gaza City, said the two sources, one of them an official at the interior ministry.
What we know so far:
Hello and thank you for following our live coverage of events in the Middle East.
Early on Tuesday Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza strip, saying it was hitting Hamas targets in its heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January.
The surprise attack shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.
Tuesday’s strikes have resulted in a heavy death toll, with Gaza’s health ministry saying that more than 200 people have been killed, many of whom were women and children.
Here is a brief recap of everything you need to know.
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Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in ongoing talks to extend the ceasefire. He accused Hamas of “repeated refusal to release our hostages” and rejecting proposals from US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” it said in a statement. Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand.
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Hamas warned that Israel’s new airstrikes breached their ceasefire and put the fate of hostages in jeopardy. A senior Hamas official said Netanyahu’s decision to launch widespread strikes on the Gaza strip amounted to a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages held there. In a statement early on Tuesday, Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, accused Netanyahu of resuming the war to try and save his far-right governing coalition.
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Strikes were reported in multiple locations, including northern Gaza, Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip.
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Israel’s ambassador to UN has vowed that strikes would continue, saying that: “Nothing will stop us from fighting to free our hostages who have been held in brutal Hamas captivity for 527 days. We will show no mercy against our enemies while our hostages languish in Hamas terror tunnels.”
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The Israeli military has also said the strikes would continue as long as necessary and could extend beyond airstrikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting, according to Reuters.
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Tuesday’s attacks have been 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 January 19.
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The White House has confirmed it was briefed in advance about Israel’s attack on Gaza, with spokesperson Karoline Leavitt quoted by US media as saying that those who seek to terrorise Israel and the US “will see a price to pay”. “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” White House spokesperson Brian Hughes said.
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The return to fighting could worsen deep internal fissures inside Israel over the fate of the remaining hostages, Associated Press reports. Many of the hostages released by Hamas returned emaciated and malnourished, putting heavy pressure on the government to extend the ceasefire.
