Israeli bombs hit the Gaza Strip on Friday morning after a week-long truce with Hamas ended, and Israeli forces accused the Palestinian militant group of violating the terms of their deal.
“Following sirens sounding in communities near Gaza, the IDF Air Defense Array successfully intercepted a launch from Gaza,” said a post on the Israel Defense Forces’ official X account at 6:18 a.m. local time.
Palestinians survey the destruction around residential buildings following Israeli airstrikes in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on December 1, 2023, as fighting resumed shortly after a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants ended.
said Khatib | AFP | Getty Images
An hour later, it released an update that read: “Hamas violated the operational cease-fire and, in addition, fired into Israeli territory. The Israeli Army resumed the battle against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.”
The ceasefire itself ended at 7am local time on Friday. Launched on November 24, it was originally supposed to last four days, but was extended for another three days as Qatari and Egyptian negotiators worked to push for a ceasefire. This allowed many more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged and more humanitarian aid to enter the battered Gaza Strip.
In total, as of Friday, 110 of the hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza on October 7 have been released. This includes 78 Israelis and two nationals, mostly women and children, who were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Under the terms of this agreement, three Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for one Israeli hostage.
A man waves an Israeli flag as a vehicle carrying two Russian hostages freed by Hamas militants on November 29, 2023, drives through Ofakim in southern Israel.
Menahem Kahana | AFP | Getty Images
Separately, three Israeli-Russian dual nationals were released as part of a deal between Hamas and Moscow, and 24 non-Israeli foreign nationals — 23 Thais and one Filipino — were released in a deal between Hamas and the governments of those captives. Before the November 24 agreement, four other Israeli hostages were freed and one was rescued in an operation by IDF forces.
About 140 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, mostly men and soldiers, for whom Hamas is expected to exact a higher price. Egyptian and Qatari negotiators said Thursday they were pushing for a new two-day extension, but those efforts apparently failed after a rocket attack from Gaza, the Israeli military said.
The resumption of fighting comes a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, his third since the start of the war, where he met with Israeli political and military leaders and urged the continuation of the ceasefire and stressed the protection of Gaza civilians population.
Blinken also visited the occupied West Bank, where he met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The secretary’s trip came as shootings by Palestinian gunmen in West Jerusalem killed at least three people, Israeli police said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken hold a meeting at Muqata, the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah on November 30, 2023.
Saul Loeb Afp | Getty Images
Israel’s war with Hamas that began on October 7 is the bloodiest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has killed more than 14,500 people in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to health authorities there.
The air and ground offensive by Israeli forces was launched in retaliation for a terror attack by Hamas in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw around 240 others captured in Gaza. Israeli authorities say about 140 hostages remain there.