More than 400 Palestinians killed and scores injured in extensive Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
More than 400 Palestinians were killed, including children and women, on Tuesday after Israel launched extensive airstrikes, Palestinian medics say.
Early Tuesday morning, Israel’s Prime Minister’s office said it instructed the army to target Hamas across the Gaza Strip.
The strikes were reported to have hit targets in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
An Israeli statement said it carried out the strikes after Hamas refused to release hostages held in the Gaza Strip, and rejected a truce deal proposed by US special envoy Steve Witkoff. Israel promised to use "increasing military force."
The scale of the horror is "unimaginable", according to one volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians based at Nasser Hospital. Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan said she had personally treated at least five patients who died in the emergency room.
“The ER was just chaos, patients everywhere, on the floor,” she said. “There were probably three men, and the rest were all children, women, and the elderly—everybody caught in their sleep, still wrapped in blankets. Terrifying.”
Surprise attack during Ramadan
The surprise attack broke a period of relative quiet during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and increased fears that the 17-month conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives and left Gaza in ruins, would resume in full.
When the Israeli planes struck, Palestinians at a school in Gaza City that was providing shelter to displaced families reported being forcibly shaken out of their sleep.
More than two dozen people died, according to hospital officials.
“People are sleeping peacefully; they set the alarm to wake up for suhoor, and they wake up to death,” said Fedaa Heriz, a displaced woman, referring to the early morning meal during the fasting month of Ramadan.
“I heard screaming, my mother and sister screaming, calling for help. I came and entered the room and found the children under the rubble, under the stones,” said Majd Naser, a displaced Palestinian.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the school strike, which was part of a renewed offensive in Gaza.
Ceasefire talks in jeopardy
The strikes come as the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel remains in limbo. The first stage of the three-phase deal brokered by the US, Qatar, and Egypt started mid-January and ended on the first of March.
Negotiations on the second phase have not yet been hammered out.
Hamas condemned the latest raids and said it holds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the "unprovoked escalation" against Palestinians.
"We hold the criminal Netanyahu fully responsible for the consequences of the treacherous aggression on Gaza, the defenceless civilians and our Palestinian people," the militant group said on Telegram.
Hamas warned the strikes breached the ceasefire and put the fate of the hostages in jeopardy.
"Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to violate the ceasefire agreement and expose the prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate," the statement said.
Four senior Hamas officials killed
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said at least four of its senior officials, including two top police officers, were killed in the Israeli strikes.
They named the officials as Issam al-Daalis, head of the government administrative committee; Maj. Gen. Mohamed Abu Watfa, undersecretary of the Interior Ministry, Maj. Gen. Bahgat Abu Sultan, director of the domestic security agency and Ahmed al-Hetta, undersecretary of the Justice Ministry.
Earlier on Monday, Israel launched attacks towards Gaza, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria, killing at least ten people, according to local authorities.
The airstrikes were the latest in what have been frequent and often deadly attacks by Israeli forces during the fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.