In a briefing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said military pressure on Hamas was a "critical condition" for securing the release of hostages. Photo: AFP / Oliver Contreras
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the resumption of airstrikes in Gaza saying negotiations on restoring the ceasefire would continue "only under fire".
Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, in an onslaught across the enclave that ended weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.
In a briefing, Netanyahu said military pressure on Hamas was a "critical condition" for securing the release of hostages held by the militant Islamist group, adding: "This is just the beginning."
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.
Earlier 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.
A woman cries while sitting on the rubble of her house, destroyed in an Israeli strike, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on 18 March, 2025. Photo: AFP
Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its 7 October 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.
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, who said her building shook as the explosions began.
Families in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and eastern areas of Khan Younis in the south fled their homes, some on foot, others in cars or rickshaws, carrying some of their belongings after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders warning the areas were "dangerous combat zones".
- Reuters
