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Israel has launched “in depth strikes” in Gaza, saying it was hitting Hamas targets in what seemed to be probably the most intense assault on the enclave since a ceasefire took impact in January.
Well being authorities in Gaza mentioned 131 folks have been killed within the air strikes, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned have been launched in response to the Palestinian militant group’s “repeated refusal to launch our hostages” and rejection of mediators’ proposals in talks to delay the ceasefire.
“Israel will, any further, act in opposition to Hamas with rising army power,” Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned in a put up on social media platform X.
The Israeli assaults got here amid a renewed flare-up in tensions throughout the area, together with US army strikes in opposition to Houthi targets in Yemen ordered by President Donald Trump in latest days.
The Trump administration mentioned it had been consulted by Israel forward of the strikes on Gaza.
“As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those that search to terrorise not simply Israel but in addition the USA of America will see a worth to pay,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed Fox Information.
The first stage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which concerned the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza in alternate for Israel’s launch of Palestinian prisoners, ended on March 1.
Worldwide mediators together with the US have been attempting to increase the truce and safe the discharge of the remaining hostages held by the militant group.
“Hamas may have launched hostages to increase the ceasefire, however as an alternative selected refusal and warfare,” Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the US Nationwide Safety Council, informed the Monetary Occasions.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Center East envoy, informed CBS on Sunday that “the latest expertise we had with Hamas’s response was not encouraging”.
He added: “We put a really smart proposal on the desk that was meant as a bridge to get to a remaining dialogue and remaining decision right here that may have integrated some form of demilitarization of Hamas.”
On March 2, Israel halted all support shipments into Gaza and threatened to chop off the territory’s water and electrical energy provide.
Trump warned Hamas early this month that “it’s OVER for you” until the group launched the remaining hostages, including that he was “sending Israel every thing it wants to complete the job”.
“Not a single Hamas member will likely be secure,” Trump wrote on his Reality Social platform. “That is your final warning!” he added. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”.
Israel returned to the negotiating desk final week, dispatching a group to Doha for the primary talks since Trump took workplace, after direct talks between Washington and Hamas stalled. Talks are being mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt.
Israel’s army motion additionally got here after Netanyahu eliminated Ronen Bar, the top of Israel’s home intelligence company Shin Wager, and David Barnea, the director of international spy company Mossad, from his nation’s negotiating group.
The prime minister claimed the intelligence chiefs, who had helped dealer the ceasefire together with officers below the Biden and Trump administrations together with Witkoff, have been negotiating too softly.
On the presidential marketing campaign path final yr, Trump promised US voters that he would deliver peace to the Center East.
Oil costs have been regular on Tuesday throughout Asian buying and selling, with Brent crude futures, the worldwide benchmark, edging up 0.3 per cent to $71.26 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, rose 0.3 per cent to $67.78 per barrel.
Extra reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington and William Sandlund in Hong Kong
