Netanyahu says strikes across Gaza that killed hundreds ‘only the beginning’

Israel launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, killing more than 400 Palestinians, health officials said, and shattering a ceasefire in place since January with its deadliest bombardment in a 17-month war with Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes, which killed mostly women and children, after Hamas refused Israeli demands to change the ceasefire agreement.

In a statement on national television, he said the attack was “only the beginning” and that Israel would press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims, destroying Hamas and freeing all hostages held by the militant group.

All further ceasefire negotiations will take place “under fire” he said.

The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.

The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate eastern Gaza and head toward the centre of the territory, indicating that Israel could soon launch renewed ground operations.

The new campaign comes as aid groups say supplies are running out, two weeks after Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel and other goods to Gaza’s two million Palestinians.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

The attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan could signal the full resumption of a war that has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.

It also raised concerns about the fate of the roughly two dozen hostages held by Hamas who are believed to still be alive.

The renewal of the campaign against Hamas, which receives support from Iran, came as the US and Israel stepped up attacks this week across the region.

The US launched deadly strikes against Iran-allied rebels in Yemen, while Israel has targeted Iran-backed militants in Lebanon and Syria.

Izzat al-Risheq accused Mr Netanyahu of launching the strikes to save his far-right governing coalition.

Hamas said at least six senior officials were killed in Tuesday’s strikes.

Israel said they included the head of Hamas’ civilian government, its justice minister and two security agency chiefs. There were no reports of any attacks by Hamas several hours after the bombardment.

But Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired rockets toward Israel for the first time since the ceasefire began.

The volley set off sirens in Israel’s southern Negev desert but was intercepted before it reached the country’s territory, the military said.

The strikes came as Mr Netanyahu faces mounting domestic pressure, with mass protests planned over his handling of the hostage crisis and his decision to fire the head of Israel’s internal security agency.

His latest evidence in a long-running corruption trial was cancelled after the strikes.

The main group representing families of the hostages accused the government of backing out of the ceasefire.

“We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Strikes across Gaza pounded homes, sparked fires in a tent camp outside the southern city of Khan Younis and hit at least one school-turned-shelter.

After two months of relative calm during the ceasefire, stunned Palestinians found themselves once again digging loved ones out of rubble and holding funeral prayers over the dead at hospital morgues.

“Nobody wants to fight,” Nidal Alzaanin, a resident of Gaza City, said. “Everyone is still suffering from the previous months.”

A hit on a home in Rafah killed 17 members of one family, according to the European Hospital, which received the bodies.

The dead included five children, their parents, and another father and his three children.

Another in Gaza City killed 27 members of a family, half of them women and children, including a one-year-old, according to a list of the dead from Palestinian medics.

At Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, patients lay on the floor, some screaming. A young girl cried as her bloody arm was bandaged.

Wounded children overwhelmed the paediatric ward, said Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the strikes killed at least 404 people and wounded more than 560.

Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, said at least 263 of those killed were women or children under 18. He described it as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war.

The war has killed over 48,500 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced 90% of Gaza’s population.

The health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants but says more than half of the dead have been women and children.

The war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.

Most have been released in ceasefires or other deals, with Israeli forces rescuing only eight and recovering dozens of bodies.