Israel launched an attack in Gaza overnight, killing hundreds of Palestinians, as the fragile ceasefire shattered.
The nearly two-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel ended Tuesday after Israel launched the attack. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the country launched the attack on Gaza because ceasefire talks between the Jewish state and Hamas were coming to a “dead end.”
“We had no alternative but to give the order to re-open fire,” Sa’ar told a conference in southern Israel. “If we could achieve the same goals in a different way, fine. But if it’s impossible to advance that way, you resume military operations.”
Hamas said four of its leaders were killed in the attack, including Bahjat Abu Sultan, a leader of Hamas’s internal security body, and Issam Da’alis, a member of Hamas’s Gaza leadership. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, has estimated the death toll at over 400 people and anticipates that number to grow as bodies are recovered from the rubble. The ministry didn’t specify how many of those killed were militants. Another 500 are estimated to be injured.
After the attack, the Israel Defense Forces sent an evacuation warning to residents of northern and southern Gaza in a sign that more airstrikes were imminent. The Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt has been closed. That crossing had been the main avenue for sick or wounded Palestinians to receive care during the ceasefire.
There are 58 remaining hostages in Gaza. Of those kidnapped on Oct. 7, 193 have been recovered. The families of the remaining hostages condemned the strikes.
“The Israeli government has chosen to abandon the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a social media post. “We are horrified, furious and scared by the intentional shattering of the process of returning our loved ones from the terrible Hamas captivity.”
The White House was told before the strikes took place that they would be occurring, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.
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Some Israeli opposition politicians have said the strike and apparent end to the ceasefire are acting as a distraction after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his intelligence chief, Ronan Bar. A Cabinet vote on Bar’s future had been set for Wednesday.
Protests are expected to take place in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, with similar protests planned in Jerusalem on Tuesday and Wednesday.