Truce shattered as Israeli strikes kill over 400 in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.

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Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas each accused the other of breaching the truce, which had broadly held since January, offering respite from war for the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza, where most buildings have 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 jeopardising 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 during faltering talks.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The strikes hit houses and tent encampments from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, and Israeli tanks shelled from across the border line, witnesses said. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 404 people had been killed in one of the biggest single-day tolls since the war erupted.

“It was a night of hell. It felt like the first days of the war,” said Rabiha Jamal, 65, a mother of five from Gaza City.

Egypt and Qatar, mediators in the ceasefire deal along with the US, condemned the Israeli assault. The airstrikes earned Netanyahu a political boost at home. Former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who left the government over disagreements about the Gaza ceasefire, is rejoining the coalition after the resumption of Israeli strikes, a statement said, strengthening Netanyahu’s government.

As Israel launched its operation in Gaza, its forces have pressed on with an operation in the occupied West Bank.

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 Palestinians.

With the backing of the US, Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining hostages in exchange for a truce until after the fasting month of Ramadan.