By WAFAA SHURAFA, BASSEM MROUE and JULIA FRANKEL, The Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fighter jets hit Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip on Friday shortly after a weeklong truce expired, the navy mentioned, because the struggle resumed in full drive.
Airstrikes hit southern Gaza, together with the group of Abassan east of the city of Khan Younis, the Interior Ministry within the Hamas-run territory mentioned. Another strike hit a house northwest of Gaza City.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Loud, steady explosions had been heard coming from the Gaza Strip and black smoke billowed from the territory.
In Israel, sirens blared at three communal farms close to Gaza warning of incoming rocket fireplace, suggesting Hamas had additionally resumed its assaults.
The Israeli navy’s announcement of the strikes got here solely half-hour after the cease-fire expired at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) Friday.
Earlier Friday, Israel accused Hamas of getting violated the phrases of the cease-fire, together with by firing rockets towards Israel from Gaza.
The halt in preventing started Nov. 24. It initially lasted for 4 days, after which was prolonged for a number of days with the assistance of Qatar and fellow mediator Egypt.
During the week-long truce, Hamas and different militants in Gaza launched greater than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in return for 240 Palestinians free of prisons in Israel.
Virtually all of these freed had been ladies and youngsters, however the truth that few such hostages remained in Gaza sophisticated reaching a deal for an extra extension.
Hamas, which has dominated Gaza for 16 years, had additionally been anticipated to set the next value for the remaining hostages, particularly Israeli troopers. About 140 hostages stay in Gaza, with greater than 100 having been freed as a part of the truce.
Qatar and Egypt, which have performed a key function as mediators, had sought to lengthen the truce by one other two days.
Israel has been underneath rising stress from its fundamental ally, the United States, to do extra to guard Palestinian civilians when it resumes its strikes towards Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and different prime officers on his third go to to the area for the reason that begin of the struggle two months in the past.
While expressing hope on the time that the cease-fire could possibly be prolonged, Blinken mentioned that if Israel resumed the struggle and moved towards southern Gaza to pursue Hamas, it should achieve this in “compliance with international humanitarian law” and will need to have “a clear plan in place” to guard civilians. He mentioned Israeli leaders understood that ”the huge ranges of civilian life and displacement scale we noticed within the north should not be repeated within the south.”
Israel had mentioned it will preserve the truce till Hamas stops releasing captives, and vowed then to renew its marketing campaign to crush Hamas, even because the Biden administration has urged it to function with far better precision if it does so.
Most of Gaza’s inhabitants is now crammed into the south with no exit, elevating questions over how an Israeli offensive there can keep away from heavy civilian casualties.
Netanyahu had been underneath intense stress from households of the hostages to carry them residence. But his far-right governing companions had been additionally pushing him to proceed the struggle till Hamas is destroyed, and will abandon his coalition if he’s seen as making too many concessions.
A complete of 83 Israelis, together with twin nationals, had been freed in the course of the truce, most of whom appeared bodily nicely however shaken. Another 24 hostages — 23 Thais and one Filipino — had been additionally launched, together with a number of males.
It’s not clear how most of the remaining ladies hostages are troopers.
Israel has mentioned round 125 males are nonetheless held hostage.
Before the cease-fire, Hamas launched 4 hostages, and the Israeli military rescued one. Two others had been discovered useless in Gaza.
The 240 Palestinians launched thus far underneath the cease-fire had been principally youngsters accused of throwing stones and firebombs throughout confrontations with Israeli forces. Several of the freed ladies had been convicted by navy courts of trying to assault troopers, a few of them after being discovered carrying scissors or knives close to safety positions.
Hamas began the struggle with a lethal Oct. 7 assault on Israel, throughout which it and different Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, and took round 240 individuals captive. Authorities have solely offered approximate figures.
Since then, Israel’s bombardment and invasion in Gaza have killed greater than 13,300 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of them ladies and minors, based on the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. More than three-quarters of the inhabitants of two.3 million have been uprooted, after weeks of Israeli bombardment and a floor marketing campaign, resulting in a humanitarian disaster.
The toll is probably going a lot greater, as officers have solely sporadically up to date the depend since Nov. 11. The ministry says 1000’s extra persons are feared useless underneath the rubble.
Israel says 77 of its troopers have been killed within the floor offensive. It claims to have killed 1000’s of militants, with out offering proof.
Palestinians in Gaza have known as for a everlasting finish to the struggle, saying the non permanent truces don’t resolve the humanitarian disaster within the territory. Over 1.8 million individuals have fled their properties, with greater than 1 million sheltering in U.N. colleges and struggling to search out primary objects together with cooking fuel and flour.
Mroue reported from Lebanon, and Frankel from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Tel Aviv, Israel and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this story.
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