The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 57th day on Saturday, was sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s bloody and unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7 from the Gaza Strip, where it seized power in 2007.
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According to Israel, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in this attack and around 240 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip.
In retaliation, Israel, which had vowed to “destroy” Hamas, relentlessly bombed the small Palestinian territory its army invaded before a ceasefire began on November 24.
AFP
The Israeli army and Hamas resumed bombing and fighting after the break ended on Friday morning.
According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, including more than 6,150 under the age of 18.
Here are the latest developments:
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which allowed for the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as well as the entry of more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, expired on Friday morning and hostilities immediately resumed.
On Saturday, the Hamas-led government in the small Palestinian territory said 240 people had been killed and 650 others injured since the ceasefire expired.
The Israeli army claimed to have struck more than 400 targets in the Gaza Strip since Friday, including more than 50 in the Khan Younes (south) region, saying it had “hit terrorists and Hamas infrastructure.”
The Israeli army sent text messages to residents in several areas urging them to “leave immediately.”
“Terror cells,” a “mosque used by Islamic Jihad (the other major Islamist movement in Gaza) as an operational command center,” and an “arms storage complex” were also targeted by artillery fire and airstrikes in northern Gaza. the army in detail.
For their part, the armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they had fired “rocket fire” at Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokesman said “more than 250 rockets” had been fired at Israel since Friday morning without causing any casualties.
Israeli negotiators continuing talks in Qatar over a new ceasefire with Hamas returned to Israel because the dialogue was “at an impasse,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday.
The war against Hamas will continue until “all of its objectives are achieved,” including the destruction of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Mr. Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Israel that the goal of the “total destruction of Hamas” needed to be “specified” as it risked a “decade-long” war.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Saturday that it had “received aid trucks” through Egypt’s Rafah terminal, the border post with Gaza, the first since the end of the ceasefire.