The temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning when the Jewish nation blamed the terrorist group for “violating” the truce by launching rockets into Israeli territory before the agreement expired.
In response, moments after the ceasefire ended, the Israeli military resumed its attack on Gaza, launching airstrikes on the Palestinian territory for the first time since the lull in fighting began on November 24.
“Hamas violated the operational pause and, in addition, fired into Israeli territory,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement around 7:15 a.m. local time.
“The IDF has resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.”
Israel’s military said it intercepted the rocket fired from Gaza shortly before the truce ended at 7 a.m.
Israel then launched airstrikes against the Abassan community in southern Gaza, as well as a house in Gaza City, according to the Gaza Interior Ministry.
The sound of incessant explosions and dark black smoke once again filled the air over the Palestinian territory, a sign that the war had resumed in full force.
An Israeli soldier watches as they operate in the Gaza Strip, after a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas expired, in this photo released December 1, 2023. via REUTERS
Back in Israel, near the Gaza border, sirens sounded in farming communities warning of incoming rocket fire, believed to have been launched by Hamas.
The return to fighting marked the end of a seven-day ceasefire in a truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt that included an exchange of hostages and prisoners.
The pause in fighting began on Nov. 24 and extended into a seventh day on Thursday after Hamas agreed to release more Israeli hostages its militants had kidnapped in the Jewish nation during its deadly Oct. 7 invasion, in which They killed 1,200 people.
Israel claims Hamas violated ceasefire as truce deal expires on December 1, 2023. IDF/X A Palestinian helps a child following an Israeli attack on a house, after a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel expired , in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. December 1, 2023. REUTERS
More than 100 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians who were held captive in Israel during the truce. Those freed by both sides were practically all women and children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas failed to live up to its side of the deal by releasing all the women hostages on Friday.
It is unclear whether the women left under Hamas control are IDF soldiers. But with fewer women and no children left hostage in Gaza, mediators feared the negotiations would fail as Hamas would want higher interest in exchange for the release of the adult male hostages.
Smoke rises from buildings after they are hit by Israeli strikes, as battles between Israel and Hamas militants resume, on December 1, 2023. AFP via Getty Images A woman holding a child mourns the death of her baby in an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the south. Gaza Strip, as she waits to receive the body for burial in the courtyard of al-Najjar hospital on December 1, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
The week-long ceasefire also allowed desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, where the Health Ministry says 13,300 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and thousands more are homeless after their homes were destroyed.
The death toll is likely much higher as officials have struggled to keep track of the dead since Nov. 11 and many more Palestinians are feared trapped under the rubble.
About two-thirds of the dead were women and children, according to the Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas but considered reliable by the United Nations.
Smoke rises in Rafah following an Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city on December 1, 2023, as fighting resumed shortly after the expiration of a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas. AFP via Getty Images
Israel, which has vowed to annihilate Hamas, is expected to launch an offensive against southern Gaza now that the truce has ended after seven weeks of attacking the northern part of the Palestinian territory, leaving it in ruins.
The United States, Israel’s number one ally, has warned the Jewish nation to avoid killing civilians in its fight against Hamas.
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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli officials on Thursday and warned Netanyahu that the devastation Israel inflicted on the north cannot be repeated in the south, which he said Israel had agreed to.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning and I underscored the imperative for the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement on the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken told journalists in Tel Aviv. .
With postal cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn