Jerusalem, Mar 18 (EFE).- Israel resumed airstrikes and artillery fire on the Gaza Strip Tuesday, shattering a nearly two-month ceasefire with Hamas and killing hundreds of Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza authorities.
As bodies remain trapped under rubble and hospitals struggle amid fuel shortages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to escalate military operations, accusing Hamas of withholding hostages.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza government raised the death toll to 326 “as a result of the multiple attacks and massacres” by the Israeli forces since dawn.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble, and efforts are underway to retrieve them,” the health ministry’s media office said on Telegram.
“There are dozens of bodies that have not yet been able to reach hospitals,” Zaher al-Waheidi, director of the health ministry unit in charge of counting the dead, told EFE.
The Gazan government said that bodies were not reaching hospitals due to the difficult humanitarian situation on the ground and the paralysis of the transportation sector due to the lack of fuel in all of the strip’s provinces, alluding to the fuel shortage in the enclave, which worsened when Israel began completely blocking aid access at the beginning of the month.
Early in the morning, Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip after a nearly two-month ceasefire in the enclave, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “strong action against the Hamas terrorist organization,” accusing the group of failing to hand over the 59 people kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, who remain in the Palestinian territory.
According to the Gaza government, the majority of those killed in the Israeli strikes are women and children.
Before the ceasefire went into effect on Jan. 19, the United Nations estimated that around 70 percent of the victims were women and children.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office announced that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were attacking Hamas targets in Gaza “to achieve the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon, including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased.”
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement added, indicating that the “operational plan was presented by the IDF over the weekend and approved by the political leadership.”
The news comes after Netanyahu announced a delegation would travel to Cairo to continue negotiating a ceasefire with Hamas.
Sanad, an agency linked to extremist group Hamas, reported that dozens of people were killed in attacks in the southern town of Khan Yunis, including members of two families who were in their homes when they were attacked by the Israeli army.
In addition to the airstrikes, tank fire has also been reported in the same town in the south of the enclave, the same source indicates.
Other locations attacked by Israeli troops are south and east of Rafah, according to Sanad, as well as Gaza City in the north.
Victims of the attacks are arriving at Al Shifa Hospital and Nasser and European Hospital, according to images distributed by Palestinian media, which show children and infants among the dead.
Palestinian media said Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the deputy director of the Hamas Interior Ministry, is among the dead, though it has not yet been officially confirmed. EFE
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