Israel has resumed its heavy bombing of civilians in Gaza, killing at least 404 Palestinians over the course of a single day. The attacks are a major violation — and potentially unilateral ending — of the already-fragile ceasefire and captive release deal.
On Tuesday, Israel dropped a huge number of bombs across Gaza without any forewarning, with Palestinians reporting intense shelling and being surrounded by the sound of Israeli quadcopters. The severity of the strikes mirrors the early days of Israel’s genocide, Palestinians have said.
Palestinians have described waking up to the sound of Israeli bombs killing entire families, as Al Jazeera reports. Meanwhile, hospitals are overwhelmed with patients amid severe supply shortages due to Israel’s blockade over the past 16 months of the genocide. Even basic supplies like gauze and disinfectant are in short supply, while fuel supplies allowed in by Israel in the first weeks of the ceasefire are also running low, in the third week of Israel’s renewed total aid blockade.
Officials say that Israel’s bombings on Tuesday wounded at least 562 people. At least 174 children are among those killed, Drop Site reports, citing a Gaza Ministry of Health official.
A Gaza Ministry of Health official told The Associated Press that Tuesday’s attacks mark the single deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the genocide, with more deaths likely to be recorded in the coming hours and days. Nowhere is safe from the massacres, reports say, with even Israel’s designated “safe zone” reportedly coming under Israeli fire.
“We were sleeping when suddenly a volcano descended on my children’s heads,” said Muhammad al-Sakani, to Mondoweiss, outside of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Two of his children were killed in the attacks. “This is the bank of targets of Netanyahu, Trump, and all the other cowards.”
“Their only crime is that our enemy is a criminal who assassinates children and women as they sleep,” Al-Sakani said, of his children.
The Trump administration signed off on Israel’s attack, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Monday. She pledged that “all hell will break loose” on Hamas, as well as “the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States.”
Hamas officials said that they view the attacks as a “decision to overturn the ceasefire agreement” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. The group added that the U.S. bears responsibility for the slaughter.
“The acknowledgment by the U.S. administration that it was informed in advance of the Zionist aggression confirms its direct partnership in the war of extermination against our people,” the group said. “With its unlimited political and military support for the occupation, Washington bears full responsibility for the massacres and killing of women and children in Gaza.”
Netanyahu said in a statement that “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”
He ordered the military to carry out the bombings in response to Hamas’s refusal to release more Israeli captives and continue the ceasefire deal, the statement said — but Hamas has repeatedly said that they are committed to the original ceasefire agreement, which would have entailed a full release of the remaining captives and a permanent end to Israel’s siege of Gaza.
Commentators have noted that Netanyahu’s personal political considerations also weigh heavily on the decision to resume the massacres. Netanyahu is on trial for a series of corruption charges, and was supposed to testify on Tuesday, the same day of the new attack. That hearing was postponed due to the attack.
Gaza officials have said that the resumption of the bombings only confirms that Israel was never interested in carrying out the ceasefire agreement in full. Israel has already committed numerous ceasefire violations over the past months, killing an average of three Palestinians a day for a total count of at least 150 killings.
“These brutal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation army reaffirm that this occupation only understands the language of killing, destruction, and genocide,” the Gaza Government Media Office said. “They expose the true intentions of the occupation in shedding the blood of innocent people without the slightest moral or legal restraint, proving that they have a premeditated plan to continue committing genocide against children and women, as seen on the ground. It confirms that this is an occupation thirsty for blood.”
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