At least 342 Palestinians have been killed as Israel launched a massive assault on Gaza, shattering the fragile two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.
Those killed in Tuesday’s attack included at least 77 people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and at least 20 people in Gaza City in the north, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Israeli strikes also hit locations in central Deir el-Balah and Rafah in the south.
Many of them were children, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to take “strong action” against Hamas over its refusal to release captives taken from Israel or agree to offers to extend the ceasefire.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The Israeli military said on Telegram that it was conducting “extensive strikes on terror targets” belonging to Hamas.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, said it viewed Israel’s attacks as a unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire that began on January 19.
“Netanyahu and his extremist government are making a decision to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate,” Hamas said in a statement. It called on people in Arab and Islamic nations, along with the “free people of the world”, to take to the streets to protest the assault.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group accused Israel of “deliberately sabotaging all efforts to reach a ceasefire”.
‘Remains of their children’ in their hands
Ahmed Abu Rizq, a teacher in Gaza, said he and his family woke up to the sound of “Israeli strikes everywhere”.
“We were frightened, our children were frightened. We had many calls from our relatives to check, to check [on] ourselves. And the ambulance started to run from one street to another,” Abu Rizq told Al Jazeera, adding that families started to arrive at the local hospital with the “remains of their children” in their hands.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the strikes were concentrated on heavily built-up neighbourhoods, makeshift schools and residential buildings where people have been sheltering.
“We have heard in the past hour a clear presence of Israeli drones and fighter jets across the skies in the central area and we understand that among those who were found as victims during the attack were newborn babies, children, women and the elderly,” Abu Azzoum said, adding that several high-ranking Hamas officials had also been killed.
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks stalled
The Government Media Office in Gaza said: “These brutal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation army reaffirm that this occupation only understands the language of killing, destruction, and genocide. They expose the true intentions of the occupation in shedding the blood of innocent people without the slightest moral or legal restraint, proving that they have a premeditated plan to continue committing genocide against children and women, as seen on the ground. It confirms that this is an occupation thirsty for blood.”
Negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire deal, which would see the release of nearly 60 remaining captives and the establishment of a permanent ceasefire, have been at an impasse over Israel’s insistence that the first stage be extended until mid-April.
Hamas has released about three dozen captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners since the start of the ceasefire.
While Israel did not explicitly declare an end to the ceasefire, senior officials indicated that the assault on Gaza would continue.
Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz said the “gates of hell” would open in the enclave if the remaining captives were not released.
“We will not stop fighting until all of the hostages return home and all the war’s aims are achieved,” Katz said in a statement.
Reporting from Jordan’s Amman, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said that while Israel has accused Hamas of rejecting various proposals made by negotiators, talks had been stalled after Netanyahu refused to begin negotiations on phase two of the ceasefire deal on February 6.
“Several Israeli analysts, several within the political opposition and several within Netanyahu’s own government said that this was the plan all along – a resumption of the fighting, to go back to full-scale war,” Salhut said.
“And in fact, there’s a new army chief of staff, one who said that 2025 is going to be a year of war – noting that Israel still has a lot of goals to accomplish when it comes to the Gaza Strip, meaning that they are in no way finished with their military action.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Israel had consulted with United States President Donald Trump about the strikes.
Israel’s 18-month war on Gaza has levelled much of the enclave, reducing homes, hospitals and schools to rubble.
Israeli forces have so far killed more than 48,000 people in the territory, according to Palestinian health authorities.
