Israel strikes in Gaza kill at least 200, Palestinian health authorities say

Cairo, Egypt/Jerusalem, Israel -  Israeli air strikes pounded Gaza, killing at least 200 people, Palestinian health authorities said, and threatening a complete collapse of a two-month ceasefire as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the strip.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to take "strong action" against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza in response to the group's refusal to release hostages and rejection of ceasefire proposals.

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Hamas, meanwhile, accused Israel of overturning the hard-fought ceasefire deal, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain.

Israel's renewed intense pressure on Hamas came as tensions flared elsewhere in the Middle East, a major supplier of oil to global markets, which has seen the Gaza war spread to Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any further attacks on international shipping carried out by the Houthi group, as his administration expanded strikes in Yemen, the biggest US military operation in the region since he returned to the White House.

Strikes were reported in multiple locations. Palestinian health ministry officials said many of the dead were children.

The Israeli military, which said it hit dozens of targets, said the attacks would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond air strikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.

The attacks were far wider in scale than the regular series of drone strikes the Israeli military has said it has conducted against individuals or small groups of suspected militants and follows weeks of failed efforts to agree an extension to the truce agreed on January 19.

Among those killed was senior Hamas official Mohammad Al-Jmasi, a member of the political office, and members of his family, including his grandchildren who were in his house in Gaza City when it was hit by an air strike, Hamas sources and relatives said. In all, at least five senior Hamas officials were killed along with members of their families.

Israel has weakened Hamas and the group's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, killing their leaders while launching attacks on the Houthis, all members of what has been called Iran's "Axis of Resistance" against U.S. and Israeli interests.

In hospitals strained by 15 months of bombardment, piles of bodies in white plastic sheets smeared with blood could be seen stacked up as casualties were brought in.

Some people were brought to overwhelmed hospitals by private cars.

Authorities also reported separately that 16 members of one family in Rafah, in southern Gaza had been killed.

A spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry said the death toll was at least 200.

In Washington, a White House spokesperson said Israel had consulted the US administration before it carried out the strikes.

"Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war," White House spokesperson Brian Hughes said.

In Gaza, witnesses contacted by Reuters said Israeli tanks shelled areas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, forcing many families who had returned to their areas after the ceasefire began to leave their homes and head north to Khan Younis.

Standoff 

Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas had been in Doha as mediators from Egypt and Qatar sought to bridge the gap between the two sides after the end of an initial phase in the ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais returned by militant groups in Gaza in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

With the backing of the United States, Israel had been pressing for the return of the remaining 59 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a longer-term truce that would have halted fighting until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday in April.

However Hamas had been insisting on moving to negotiations for a permanent end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, in accordance with the terms of the original ceasefire agreement.

Each side has accused the other of failing to respect the terms of the January ceasefire agreement. But until now, a full return to the fighting had been avoided.

The army did not provide details about the strikes carried out in the early hours of Tuesday but Palestinian health authorities and witnesses contacted by Reuters reported damage in numerous areas of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are living in makeshift shelters or damaged buildings.

Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on October 7, 2023 when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities around the enclave, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Writing by Enas Alashray, James Mackenzie and Michael Georgy; Editing by Stephen Coates and Gerry Doyle)