MONITORING (SW) – Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said, shattering nearly two months of relative calm since a ceasefire began, as Israel warned the onslaught was “just the beginning.”
Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas accused each other of breaching the truce. It had broadly held since January and offered respite from war for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardizing efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting, but the group made no threat of retaliation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension.
Netanyahu called on Gazans to get out of harm’s way and move to safer areas, blaming every civilian casualty on Hamas.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing force. And from now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said, speaking from the Kirya army base in Tel Aviv.
“Hamas has already felt the blow of our arm in the last 24 hours. And I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”
The strikes hit houses and tent encampments from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said an Israeli plane fired missiles into Gaza City late on Tuesday.
Israeli tanks shelled from across the border, witnesses said. Palestinian health authorities said 408 people had been killed in one of the biggest single-day tolls since the war erupted.
Families in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and eastern areas of Khan Younis in the south fled their homes. Carrying belongings, some were on foot, others in cars or rickshaws after the Israeli military ordered them to evacuate from what it said were “dangerous combat zones”.
Egypt and Qatar, mediators in the ceasefire deal along with the U.S., condemned the Israeli assault, while the European Union said in a statement it deplored the breakdown of the ceasefire.
The U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said the “modest gains” made during the ceasefire had been destroyed.
Israel has halted aid deliveries into Gaza for more than two weeks, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.
However, Dorothy Shea, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the blame for the resumption of Gaza hostilities “lies solely with Hamas” and expressed support for Israel in its next steps.
“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.
Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas had been in Doha as mediators sought to bridge the gap between the two sides after the end of an initial phase in the ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais released in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining hostages in exchange for a truce until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.
