GAZA: Israel carried out deadly bombardments in Gaza for a second day on Saturday after a week-long truce collapsed despite international calls for an extension.
Clouds of grey smoke from the strikes hung over Gaza, where more than 200 people had been killed since the pause in hostilities expired early Friday.
As hostilities resumed, international leaders and humanitarian groups condemned the return to fighting.
"I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza," UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on X.
"Today, in a matter of hours, scores were reportedly killed and injured," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said.
"Families were told to evacuate, again. Hopes were dashed."
Fears of a wider regional conflict grew after the Syrian defence ministry said Israeli strikes had hit Damascus on Saturday and the Lebanese groups said one of their members had been killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Friday.
The United States said it is working with regional partners to reach another ceasefire.
"We're going to continue to work with Israel and Egypt and Qatar on efforts to reimplement the pause," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in California on Friday.
Mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt are ongoing, said a source briefed on the talks who asked not to be named.
In a diplomatic breakthrough, both sides agreed to a seven-day truce, during which Hamas freed 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, and more aid entered Gaza.
The week of hostage-prisoner exchanges yielded tearful reunions of families with their released relatives and jubilation in the streets of the occupied West Bank as Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jails.
Twenty-five other hostages, mostly Thais, were also freed in separate arrangements.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Dubai on Friday that the United States remained "intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back" and "pursuing the process that had worked for seven days" during the truce.
But the Israeli military said that "ground, air and naval forces struck in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, including in Khan Yunis and Rafah."
Israeli forces carried out operations early Saturday in various areas of the occupied West Bank, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Outside the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, a man in a blue sweater bellowed in grief and turned his face and hands to the sky after viewing a dead boy in a body bag.
In Israel, sirens warning of potential missiles sounded in several communities near Gaza. Authorities said they were restarting security measures in the area, including closing schools.
A rocket strike destroyed a van in one Israeli community near Gaza.
The Israeli military published a map of "evacuation zones" in the Gaza Strip that it said would enable residents to "evacuate from specific places for their safety if required".
Residents in various areas of Gaza were sent SMS warnings on Friday. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
