In the night Israel resumed military operations in Gaza, effectively putting an end to the fragile truce that had lasted for almost two months.
Hamas: “404 dead and 562 injured”
The Ministry of Health of Gaza, managed by Hamas, announced on Telegram that so far 404 dead and 562 injured have arrived in the hospitals of the Strip. “So far, 404 martyrs and 562 are the wounded in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip, following the multiple attacks and massacres committed by employment in the early hours of today in the Gaza Strip – reads a press release -. Several victims are still under the rubble and recovery operations are underway ».
Hamas condemned the move of Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of using conflict as a “still salvation” politics in the face of pressure and internal crises. In this way, the Palestinian group warned, the head of government has “decided to sacrifice” the 59 hostages still prisoners, of which 22 is still believed to be aliveand “to impose a death sentence”.
Hamas publishes the names of the high operations killed in the night
The Hamas Government Information Office officially announced the death of several high government officials in the wave of attacks by the Israeli Air Force. These are ISSAM A-Dalis, head of monitoring government activities and member of the political office of Hamas, Ahmed Al-Hatta, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice, Mahmoud Abu Watfa, Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Bahjat Abu Sultan, general manager of the internal security mechanism.
Netanyahu referred precisely to Hamas’s “repeated refusal” to “release the hostages and all the proposals received from the envoy of the US President, Steve Witkoff, and by the mediators” to justify the resumption of the offensive. The head of government explained that he had given orders to the IDF that he “acting forcefully” against the Palestinian group in the Enclave, “targeting objectives throughout the strip”.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with an increasing military force,” Netanyahu warned. The Minister of Defense Israel Katz echoed him, who threatened: “The doors of hell will open in Gaza” and Hamas will be hit with a “never seen before” force if he will not release all the kidnapped. Enthusiasm was expressed by the far-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who came out of the government coalition in January in opposition to the ceasefire agreement. For the leader of Otzmah Yehudit, the resumption of war is “the right step, moral, ethical and more justified to destroy Hamas and bring back our hostages”.
“We ask that the mediators consider Netanyahu fully responsible for having violated and canceled the agreement of the fire,” Hamas urgedwhile the Islamic jihad has assured that the new offensive “will not give Israel the superiority over the resistance, neither on the field nor in negotiations. It will not free Netanyahu and its bloody government from the crisis they are fleeing ».
“What Netanyahu and his barbaric army have not been able to make in 15 months of crimes and bloodshed, they will not be able to make it again,” said the Palestinian group, accusing Tel Aviv of “having deliberately sabotaged all the efforts to reach a ceasefire”.
The offensive operating plan was presented by the IDF last weekend and was approved from the political leaders. On Monday morning Netanyahu held a series of meetings with the heads of the armed forces and security services to take the final decision on the timing.
According to an Israeli official, the project was kept secret within a restricted circle in the armed forces to use the surprise element against Hamas. The medium -level commanders of the Palestinian group, the members of the political office and its infrastructure in the strip ended up in the view.
To lead the Israeli offensive from the defense headquarters to Kirya there is the new Chief of Staff of the IDF, Eyal Zamirentered office two weeks ago. Together with him, the director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, who ended up in the eye of the cyclone last Sunday when Bibi announced his intention to fire him for “a growing lack of trust”, unleashing the protests of the opposition and the attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara.
Tel Aviv has made it known that he had informed the Trump administration in advance of the attack plan and from the White House, the spokesman Karoline Leavitt confirmed. “Trump clarified that Hamas, Houthi, Iran, whoever you try to act through terrorism not only against Israel, but also against the United States, will pay the price”he pointed to Fox News, reiterating that “hell will unleash”, the threat evoked by the American president in these two months.
“All terrorists in the Middle East should take him seriously,” added Leavitt, also referring to the US raid against the Houthi in Yemen, who have continued for three days and “will go on” if the pro-Iranian rebels “will continue their actions”. From Yemen the group supported by Tehran replied by claiming that he had targeted again with missiles and drones the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman In navigation in the Red Sea, for the third time in 48 hours.
“Hamas could have released the hostages to extend the ceasefire, but instead he chose the refusal and war”supported the spokesman of the Board for National Security of the White House, Brian Hughes. Sami Abu Zuhri made himself heard from the Palestinian group, who accused the US administration of being an accomplice of the new Israeli offensive against Gaza and reiterated that Hamas fully respected the terms of the agreement.
For weeks, the international community had been committed to trying to save the truce, blocked in an impasse after the end of the first phase and the failure to start the second. The agreement, achieved thanks to the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and the USA, with the decisive pressure of the American president incoming Donald Trump, had led from January 19 to the liberation of 33 hostages and the release of over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners, giving a little breath to a Palestinian civilian population exhausted for more than 15 months of war.
In Doha the talks were taken back but the positions remained distant: Hamas pressed for the start of negotiations on the second phase – as required by the agreement – focused on the definitive termination of the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip, in exchange for the return of all the kidnapped. For his part, Netanyahu aimed at a continuation of the first phase, with the further liberation of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but without the conclusion of the conflict or the withdrawal of the soldiers, conditions that risked making his executive fall for the harsh opposition of the extreme right. To put pressure on Hamas, Tel Aviv had interrupted the entrance of the aid and cut electricity in the strip.
The US tried to obtain the extension of the truce until after Ramadan and the Jewish Easter, but the talks in Qatar ended in recent days with nothing done and the US correspondent for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, stigmatized the “totally unacceptable” response of Hamas.