Israeli forces launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, in the first major strikes on the territory since Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas began roughly two months ago. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 300 people had been killed.
The Israeli military said on Telegram just before 2:30 a.m. local time that it was “conducting extensive strikes on targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” At least 310 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the wave of Israeli strikes, said Dr. Khalil al-Dhargan, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Shortly afterward, Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli government had “resumed their aggression” in the Gaza Strip. Gaza residents reported intense strikes across the territory.
Israel’s strikes followed weeks of fruitless negotiations aimed at extending the truce. At dawn Tuesday, it was not clear whether the strikes were a brief attempt to force Hamas to compromise or the start of a new phase of war in which it would try to force Hamas from Gaza, once and for all.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Israel had consulted the White House before launching the strikes.
It was unclear whether the attack effectively ended the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect in mid-January. Hamas, in its statement, accused Israel of deciding to “overturn the cease-fire agreement, exposing the prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate,” referring to the remaining hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement that he and the defense minister, Israel Katz, had instructed the military to act, citing “repeated refusal” by Hamas to release the hostages and saying Hamas had rejected all proposals from Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, and other mediators.
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