Israel strikes in Gaza widen attacks on Iran's militant allies

Israel ended the Hamas ceasefire with deadly airstrikes across Gaza, days after the U.S. ordered an offensive against the Houthis in an escalation of hostilities against Iran-backed militant groups.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to act “with increasing military strength” against Hamas, saying the Palestinian organization had refused to release the remaining hostages taken during the October 2023 attacks. The move brought to an abrupt end any immediate hope the near two-month truce would be extended into a second phase, initially slated for the start of March.

“We have reached a dead end where we weren’t firing and there was no release of our hostages, and Israel cannot accept this,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in comments released by his office. “If we had continued to wait, the situation would have remained static.”

Hamas said at least 404 people have been killed since the airstrikes began overnight, including some senior members, with many others missing. The group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries, has repeatedly accused Israel of failing to meet its commitments under the truce brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. in January, including by preventing aid supplies getting into Gaza.

Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza, along with others overnight in Lebanon and Syria, followed the weekend return of U.S. attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, the latest effort to curb assaults by the group on Red Sea shipping that have forced vessels to avoid the area and pushed up freight rates.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday that any retaliation from the Houthis would be considered to have come from Iran, which sponsors the group as well as Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Trump has returned to the so-called maximum pressure approach to Iran that he adopted in his first term, imposing a new raft of sanctions and threatening military action if the Islamic Republic doesn’t strike a new deal on the country’s nuclear activities.

A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, condemned the fresh Israeli attacks, adding that inaction by the international community would have “catastrophic consequences for global peace and security.”

Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, said Israel’s bombardment is being conducted “without the slightest regard for international humanitarian law.” Qatar warned that the resumption of airstrikes could “ignite” the region, stressing the need for a return to ceasefire talks.

The ramping up of both U.S. and Israeli military operations has ended a period of relative calm in the Middle East over the past few weeks.

The change helped fuel a rise in gold and oil prices. The former increased to a fresh all-time high, while Brent crude climbed as much as 2.3% to $72.19 a barrel over the past two days, heading for its biggest weekly gain since January. The Israeli shekel weakened as much as 0.9%.

The Gaza bombardment is the deadliest since before the start of the ceasefire, which officially ended in early March. Hamas released around 38 hostages during the official six-week duration, including some dead, with Israel freeing more than 1,700 imprisoned Palestinians. There was no official extension of the deal as the warring sides disagreed on the way forward during talks through the mediators.

Netanyahu’s coalition wants Hamas to release the roughly 60 captives still in Gaza, of whom Israel believes about 25 are still alive, and for Hamas to disarm and step down from power in the territory. The Palestinian group is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Large swathes of Gaza have been destroyed in the 17 months of war, with the vast majority of its 2 million population displaced. More than 48,000 people have been killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health authority.

In recent days, Israel gathered evidence that led it to conclude Hamas was planning attacks on Israeli troops in the Gaza buffer zone and a cross-border raid into Israeli communities along the lines of the October 2023 attack, according to a senior military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 raid and 250 abducted.

Israeli intelligence saw what it believed to be Hamas preparations for such actions, the officer said, with the experience of Oct. 7 informing the military’s decision to act preemptively, rather than wait and see if they are serious.

Hostage familes

The renewed attacks are opposed by some of the families of hostages.

“The worst fear of the families, of the hostages and of the citizens of Israel has come to pass,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, one of the biggest such groups in Israel, said on Tuesday. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the hostages.”

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government said Israel had no choice but to resume fighting. The political party led by Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit the ruling coalition in protest over the ceasefire, agreed to return, the prime minister’s Likud party said. That bolstered Netanyahu’s majority to 68 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“Avoiding military pressure would have only allowed Hamas to bide its time and rebuild,” said Ofir Sofer, a minister and member of the Religious Zionism party, which is led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “The decision we took is the right one. The ceasefire did not collapse – it ended. We have full backing from the U.S.”

Israel consulted the U.S. on the operation, the White House confirmed.

“The Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview. “All hell will break loose.”

Under the first phase of the ceasefire, Israel withdrew from the Netzarim corridor, a strategic route that divided Gaza into two parts. That allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to what was left of their homes in the north.

Before the latest escalation, the U.S. said it had presented a “bridge” proposal that would extend the truce beyond the Ramadan and Passover holidays — into April — and see Hamas release living hostages in exchange for prisoners. That, according to the U.S., would enable more humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza and work to continue on a durable halt to fighting.

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With assistance from Alisa Odenheimer, Dana Khraiche, Arsalan Shahla and Dan Williams.