Israel has launched a fresh wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday on the second day of its resumed offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory.
The attacks were less intensive than the massive strikes early on Tuesday morning, which killed more than 400 people and shattered the relative calm since a January 19th ceasefire paused the 18-month war with Hamas .
Three people died in an Israeli air strike on a house in the Sabra suburb in Gaza City, while another left two dead and wounded six others in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, Gaza health officials said.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, put the death toll higher, saying that 13 people had been killed since midnight, including several in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza’s south.
There were also reports that an Israeli drone fired at several fishing boats off Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the new strikes were against “terrorist” targets including a “Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles” and “several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip … intended for use in terrorist operations by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad [armed group]”.
The IDF issued new evacuation orders on Wednesday, telling residents across a swath of northern Gaza to move south and west to avoid “dangerous combat zones”.
About 100,000 Palestinians are estimated to be affected by a series of evacuation orders in the last 24 hours, which may suggest the IDF is planning ground operations.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said late on Tuesday that the strikes were “only the beginning” and that future negotiations with Hamas “will take place only under fire”.
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had broadly held since January and offered respite for the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, died in the shock Hamas incursion into Israel in October 2023 that triggered the war. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 49,000, also mostly civilians.
Mr Netanyahu and other Israel officials said the decision to renew attacks in Gaza came after Hamas had rejected proposals for a 30- to 60-day extension of the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire.
The first phase came into effect in January but expired earlier this month. They consulted with the Trump administration before the strikes went ahead.
Hamas, which still holds 59 of about 250 hostages seized in the October 2023 attack, says it wants to conclude the three-phase ceasefire deal as signed. More than half of the hostages are thought to be dead.
Israeli has refused to enter into discussions about the deal’s second phase, which is intended to lead to a permanent end to hostilities, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of all the hostages. It has also reimposed a strict blockade on the territory, and cut off remaining electricity supplies.
Under the ceasefire deal drafted under the former US president Joe Biden’s administration, the second phase should have begun in early March.
“Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations, but we insist there is no need for new agreements,” Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas official, said on Wednesday.
He called on the international community to “take urgent action” to end the war, while accusing Israel of “violating the ceasefire agreement it signed”.
Critics have accused Mr Netanyahu of resuming the offensive to reinforce his coalition government before a crucial budget vote in parliament, to rally support for the war in the face of popular backing for a ceasefire and to head off widespread public anger over his attempt to fire the head of the internal security service, the Shin Bet.
Underlining the deep divisions in Israel, tens of thousands have protested against the renewed offensive. Parliamentarians have called for a review after police forcefully dispersed activists demonstrating on Tuesday against the resumption of the war.
The prime minister’s office said early on Wednesday that the Israeli government had “unanimously approved” his proposal to reappoint the far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister.
Mr Ben-Gvir left the government in protest at the ceasefire deal agreed in January, but said he would return if the war was resumed.
A second far-right minister who has returned is Amichai Eliyahu, who was briefly suspended in November 2023 for suggesting that the use of nuclear weapons on Gaza was an option during the war. – Guardian
