Deadliest strikes From Israel since truce

Deadliest strikes From Israel since truce

Entertainment Desk :    |    ০৩:১৮ পিএম, ২০২৫-০৩-১৮

News Desk: Netanyahu cited Hamas’s refusal to release hostages as justification, vowing to continue military operations

Hamas accused Israel of using war for political survival and warned of deadly consequences for hostages

Residents look at the remains of their homes, destroyed in an Israeli strike, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025.

Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting in Gaza until the return of all hostages as it unleashed its most intense strikes since a ceasefire, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 330 people killed.

Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to "resume war" after a deadlock on extending the truce, and warned that the return to fighting could be a "death sentence" for hostages still alive in Gaza.

The White House confirmed that Israel consulted US President Donald Trump's administration before launching the wave of strikes, which the health ministry said killed mostly women and children.

Netanyahu's office said the operation was ordered after "Hamas's repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," said the statement.

"We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved," Defence Minister Israel Katz said. 

Apart from the release of the remaining hostages, Israel's other main war aim is to crush Hamas.

An Israeli official told AFP the military operation would "continue as long as necessary" and was expected to "expand beyond air strikes". 

In a statement, Hamas said: "Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement.

"Netanyahu's decision to resume war is a decision to sacrifice the occupation's prisoners and impose a death sentence on them," it said, accusing the Israeli prime minister of using the conflict as a political "lifeboat" to stay afloat amid domestic crises.

Two Hamas sources told AFP that a stike on Gaza City killed general Mahmud Abu Watfa, who headed the group's interior ministry in the territory.

Farther south, in Khan Yunis, AFP footage showed people rushing stretchers with wounded people, including young children, to the Nasser Hospital. Bodies covered with white sheets were also taken to the hospital's mortuary.

Mohammed Jarghoun, 36, was sleeping in a tent near his destroyed house in Khan Yunis when he was woken by huge blasts.

"I thought they were dreams and nightmares, but I saw a fire in my relatives' house. More than 20 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women."

Ramez Alammarin, 25, described carrying children to hospital southeast of Gaza City.

"They unleashed the fire of hell again on Gaza," he said of Israel, adding that "bodies and limbs are on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them.