DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel launched new strikes against Hamas, killing more than 200 people, according to Palestinian officials, and promised “increasing military force” after talks on further hostage releases stalled, Israel’s Office of the Prime Minister said Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement its military is “currently attacking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip, with the aim of achieving the war goals as determined by the political echelon, including the release of all our hostages – living and dead.”
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force,” the prime minister’s office said.
The statement said Israel was resuming military strikes because of Hamas’ repeated refusals to release its hostages and its rejection of all offers it received from the U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators.
“If Hamas does not release all the kidnapped, the gates of hell will open in Gaza and Hamas’ murderers and rapists will meet the IDF with forces they have never known before,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said. “We will not stop fighting until all the kidnapped return home and all the war’s goals are achieved.”
Over the weekend, Witkoff warned that Hamas must release living hostages immediately “or pay a severe price.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday evening that the Trump administration was consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza.
“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told CBS News on Monday.
Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces a moral test: either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.
Hamas also warned that Israel’s new airstrikes breached the ceasefire and put the fate of hostages in jeopardy, saying that Israel’s government was responsible for an “unprovoked escalation” against Palestinians.
The strikes come amid the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and after nearly two months of a ceasefire to pause the 17-month-long war where dozens of hostages were released for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The first phase of the ceasefire ended March 1 but the pause in major fighting held until Monday.
But since the first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the sides have not been able to agree on a way forward with a second phase aimed at releasing the nearly 60 remaining hostages and ending the war altogether. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, and President Trump has issued several warnings and ultimatums to Hamas — some contradicting the agreed-upon terms of the ceasefire — as negotiations on a second phase of the ceasefire were struggling to materialize.
The ceasefire’s first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.
Earlier in the month, Israel cut off aid into Gaza, stopping the entry of all goods and supplies into the Palestinian territory. Israel said the aid blockade was aimed at pressuring Hamas to accept a proposal drafted by the Trump administration to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. Under the proposal, Israel had demanded Hamas immediately hand over half of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, which would have been a significant change in the terms initially agreed to under the deal brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt.
On Friday, Hamas said it had accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer last week, accusing the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
In a separate Friday statement, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was Hamas’ commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases, warning that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one.
The agreement had called for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
The war erupted with Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, cross-border terrorist attack, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population. The territory’s Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.
While the ceasefire largely halted the fighting, Israel has left troops in Gaza throughout the past two months and continued to strike targets, claiming that Palestinians were trying to carry out attacks or approaching troops in no-go zones. A number of strikes earlier Monday killed a total of 10 people, according to Palestinian officials.
