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Israel has launched “extensive strikes” in Gaza, saying it was hitting Hamas targets in what appeared to be the most intense assault on the enclave since a ceasefire took effect in January.
Health authorities in Gaza said 131 people were killed in the air strikes, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said were launched in response to the Palestinian militant group’s “repeated refusal to release our hostages” and rejection of mediators’ proposals in talks to prolong the ceasefire.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said in a post on social media platform X.
The Israeli attacks came amid a renewed flare-up in tensions across the region, including US military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen ordered by President Donald Trump in recent days.
The Trump administration said it had been consulted by Israel ahead of the strikes on Gaza.
“As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorise not just Israel but also the United States of America will see a price to pay,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
The first stage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which involved the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners, ended on March 1.
International mediators including the US have been trying to extend the truce and secure the release of the remaining hostages held by the militant group.
“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire, but instead chose refusal and war,” Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, told the Financial Times.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, told CBS on Sunday that “the recent experience we had with Hamas’s response was not encouraging”.
He added: “We put a very sensible proposal on the table that was intended as a bridge to get to a final discussion and final resolution here that would have incorporated some sort of demilitarization of Hamas.”
On March 2, Israel halted all aid shipments into Gaza and threatened to cut off the territory’s water and electricity supply.
Trump warned Hamas early this month that “it is OVER for you” unless the group released the remaining hostages, adding that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job”.
“Not a single Hamas member will be safe,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is your last warning!” he added. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”.
Israel returned to the negotiating table last week, dispatching a team to Doha for the first talks since Trump took office, after direct talks between Washington and Hamas stalled. Talks are being mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt.
Israel’s military action also came after Netanyahu removed Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, and David Barnea, the director of foreign spy agency Mossad, from his country’s negotiating team.
The prime minister claimed the intelligence chiefs, who had helped broker the ceasefire along with officials under the Biden and Trump administrations including Witkoff, were negotiating too softly.
On the presidential campaign trail last year, Trump promised US voters that he would bring peace to the Middle East.
Oil prices were steady on Tuesday during Asian trading, with Brent crude futures, the international 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.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington and William Sandlund in Hong Kong
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