March 20 (UPI) — A shaky ceasefire in the Gaza Strip slid further toward a resumption of full-scale war Thursday when Hamas fired rockets toward the coastal city of Tel Aviv, officials said.
One report claimed at least 80 Palestinians were killed. It’s the latest in a series of strikes that have killed at least 500 people in the last several days, according to Gaza health ministry officials. More than 200 were children.
Earlier this week, Israel declared an end to the fragile cease-fire. Thursday’s attack was the first time Hamas has fired rockets into Israel since the two-month standdown started to crumble.
Israel ended the cease-fire after Hamas refused to release more hostages still being held in Gaza. Hamas accused Israel of violating terms of the truce.
“If Hamas does not release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went further on social media and doubled down on his yearslong pledge to “destroy Hamas.”
“Hamas refused offer after offer to release our hostages. In the past two weeks, Israel did not initiate any military action, in the hope that Hamas would change course. Well, that didn’t happen. While Israel accepted the offer of President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Hamas flatly refused to do so,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X on Tuesday.
“This is why I authorized … the renewal of military action against Hamas.”
Hamas said Thursday that it is unwilling to disarm its military, a key Israeli condition of the cease-fire.
“If you do that, you’re giving the occupation an opportunity to kill without any Palestinian response,” Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said from Doha, Qatar on Thursday, The New York Times reported.
Hamas said it delayed its strikes until Thursday to give Israel more time to stop its attacks.