A temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday morning as the Jewish state blamed the terror group for “violating” the ceasefire by firing rockets into Israeli territory before the deal expired.
In response, moments after the ceasefire ended, the Israeli military continued its offensive in Gaza, launching airstrikes on Palestinian territory for the first time since a ceasefire began on 24 November.
“Hamas violated the ceasefire, 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 fighting against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.”
Israel’s military said it intercepted rockets fired from Gaza shortly before a ceasefire was set for 7am
Israel then launched an airstrike on the community of Abassan in southern Gaza as well as a house in Gaza City, according to the Interior Ministry in Gaza.
The sound of incessant explosions and thick black smoke once again filled the air over Palestinian territory – a sign that war had resumed in full force.
An Israeli soldier looks on as they operate in the Gaza Strip, after a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, in this handout photo released Dec. 1, 2023. via REUTERS
Back in Israel, near the Gaza border, warning sirens of incoming rocket fire — believed to have been launched by Hamas — sounded in a farming community.
The return to fighting marked the end of a seven-day ceasefire in a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Egypt that included a hostage-for-prisoner exchange.
The lull in fighting began on November 24 and extended into a seventh day Thursday after Hamas agreed to release more Israeli hostages its terrorists had kidnapped from the Jewish state during their deadly invasion on October 7 – in which they killed 1,200 people.
Israel accuses Hamas of violating the cease-fire as the cease-fire agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2023. IDF / X A Palestinian helps a boy following an Israeli attack on a house, after a temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended, in Rafah, in the south Gaza Peninsula, Dec 1, 2023. REUTERS
More than 100 hostages from Israel were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons during the ceasefire. Those freed by both sides were almost all women and children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas did not fulfill its end of the deal by freeing all the female hostages on Friday.
It is unclear if the remaining women in Hamas control are IDF soldiers. But with fewer women and no child hostages left in Gaza, mediators fear the talks will fail because Hamas wants greater interests in exchange for the release of adult male hostages.
Smoke billows from a building after being hit by an Israeli strike, as fighting resumes between Israel and Hamas, on Dec. 1, 2023. AFP via Getty Images A woman carrying a child mourns her baby daughter who was killed in an Israeli attack in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, as he waits to receive a body for burial in the courtyard of al-Najjar hospital on Dec. 1, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
The week-long ceasefire also allowed some much-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the Health Ministry said 13,300 people had been killed by Israeli airstrikes and thousands more left homeless after their homes were destroyed.
The death toll is likely to be higher as officials have had difficulty tracking the dead since November 11 and many more Palestinians are feared to be trapped under the rubble.
About two-thirds of the dead were women and children, according to the Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas but deemed credible by the United Nations.
Smoke billows in Rafah following an Israeli airstrike on the southern city of the Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2023, as fighting resumed shortly after the end of a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. AFP via Getty Images
Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, is expected to launch an offensive against southern Gaza now that a truce has ended after seven weeks of attacking the northern part of the Palestinian territory – leaving it in ruins.
The US, Israel’s main ally, has warned the Jewish state to refrain from killing civilians in the fight against Hamas.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli officials on Thursday and warned Netanyahu that the destruction Israel has done in the north cannot be repeated in the south, which he said Israel had agreed to.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing plans and I stressed the importance for the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza is not repeated in the south,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv. .
With Postal wire
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