World

More than 320 dead in Gaza as Israel makes 'extensive' strikes, ending ceasefire standoff

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing at least 326 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday — collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the territory.

Attacks follow weeks of failed efforts to agree on an extension

Israel sends barrage of airstrikes into Gaza

8 hours ago
Duration 2:56
The Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes into Gaza, hitting dozens of locations and killing at least 80 people. The strikes are expected to effectively end the fragile ceasefire.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing at least 326 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday — collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of "repeated refusal to release our hostages" and rejecting proposals from U.S. President Donald Trump's mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," his office said in a statement.

After heavy strikes, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighbourhoods in Gaza, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Hamas accused Israel of overturning the hard-fought ceasefire deal agreed to in January, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain.

Strikes in Gaza were reported in multiple locations on Tuesday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Officials from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said many of the dead were children.

A small boy sits atop rubble as a mass of concrete debris is shown in an urban setting.
A child sits amid rubble as Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

Israel's renewed intense pressure on Hamas came as tensions flared elsewhere in the Middle East, a major supplier of oil to global markets, which has seen the Gaza war spread to Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any further attacks on international shipping carried out by the Houthi group, as his administration expanded strikes in Yemen — the biggest U.S. military operation in the region since he returned to the White House.

Strikes were reported in locations including northern Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip.

Attacks condemned by Egypt, Turkey

The Israel Defence Forces said it hit dozens of targets, and that the strikes would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond air strikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.

The strikes drew swift reaction and condemnation.

The United Nations' Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory urged for the ceasefire in Gaza to be immediately reinstated.

"Waves of airstrikes occurred across the Gaza strip since the early hours of the morning ... This is unconscionable," Muhannad Hadi said in a statement.

A woman in a head covering sits beside a number of suitcases, bags and a garbage bag.
A woman sits on belongings in Rafah in southern Gaza on Tuesday as Palestinians flee their homes after the Israel army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighbourhoods following heavy airstrikes. (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

Russia said on Tuesday that it was concerned by what it called a large number of civilian casualties after Israel struck Gaza and hoped that peace would return.

"Undoubtedly, it's another deterioration in the situation [in Gaza] and another spiral of escalation that is causing our concern," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Egypt said Israel's action violated the ceasefire and marked a dangerous escalation, while Turkey's foreign ministry said Israel's attacks represented a "new phase in its policy of genocide" against Palestinians and urged the international community to take a determined stance to ensure a ceasefire is upheld and humanitarian aid is delivered.

The attacks were 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 on an extension to the truce, which began on Jan. 19.

Senior Hamas officials killed

Among those killed was senior Hamas official Mohammad Al-Jmasi, a member of the political office, and members of his family, including his grandchildren who were in his house in Gaza City when it was hit by an airstrike on Tuesday, Hamas sources and relatives said. In all, at least five senior Hamas officials were killed along with members of their families.

In hospitals strained by 15 months of bombardment, piles of bodies in white plastic sheets smeared with blood could be seen stacked up as casualties were brought in.

Some people were brought to overwhelmed hospitals by private cars.

A strike on a home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed 17 members of one family — including at least 12 women and children, according to the European Hospital, which received the bodies.

An ambulance is seen surrounded by people in a crowded urban setting in a photo taken from an elevated view looking down.
Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in the Israeli army airstrikes, as they are brought to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. (Kareem Hana/The Associated Press)

In Washington, a White House spokesperson said Israel had consulted the U.S. administration before it carried out the strikes, which the military said targeted mid-level Hamas commanders and leadership officials as well as infrastructure belonging to the militant group.

"Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war," White House spokesperson Brian Hughes said.

In Gaza, witnesses contacted by Reuters said Israeli tanks shelled areas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, forcing many families who had returned after the ceasefire to leave their homes again and head north to Khan Younis.

Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas had been in Doha as mediators from Egypt and Qatar sought to bridge the gap between the two sides following the end of an initial phase in the ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais returned by militant groups in Gaza in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

LISTEN l  Canadian Omar El Akkad on how Gaza war informs his latest book:
On October 25th, 2023, after weeks of Israeli bombardment on Gaza, Canadian novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad posted this on X: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." Israel had declared war on Hamas after the Oct 7 attack. On top of the bombardment, there was a full siege in place – civilians in Gaza were cut off from water, electricity, and food.  As Omar witnessed the destruction from afar, he kept track of how the war was being framed and talked about by Western media and governments. He spoke to host Jayme Poisson about how his frustration with all of that prompted, in part, his latest book: "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This". For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts]

Aid deliveries blocked

With the backing of the United States, Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining 59 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a longer-term truce that would have halted fighting until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.

However Hamas had been insisting on moving to negotiations for a permanent end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, in accordance with the terms of the original ceasefire agreement.

Each side has accused the other of failing to respect the terms of the January ceasefire agreement, and there were multiple hiccups during the course of the first phase. But until now, a full return to the fighting had been avoided.

The army did not provide details about the strikes carried out in the early hours of Tuesday but Palestinian health authorities and witnesses contacted by Reuters reported damage in numerous areas of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are living in makeshift shelters or damaged buildings.

Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave.

With files from The Associated Press