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Israel beats the Gaza while the ceasefire speaks

DEir al-Balah, Gaza-Strip-Israel, started a wave of air strikes over the Gaza Strip early Tuesday and said that it was a dozens of Hamas goals in his hardest attack on the territory since a ceasefire in January. Palestinian officials reported at least 69 deaths.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had ordered the strikes due to a lack of progress in the talks to extend the ceasefire. Officials said the operation was open and expected to expand.

“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” said Netanyahus office.

The surprise attack smashed a time relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and increased the prospect of a complete return in a 17-month war, in which over 48,000 Palestinians were killed and a widespread destruction was caused in Gaza. There were also questions about the fate of about two dozen Israeli hostages, which are kept by Hamas and that are assumed that they are still alive.

In an explanation, Hamas condemned what she refers to Israel's “not provoked escalation” and said she had put the fate of hostages in danger.

There was no immediate US reaction. But at the weekend, the US envoy Steve Witkoff, who together with Egypt and Qatar led the mediation efforts that Hamas “or a strong price”.

An Israeli civil servant who spoke on the condition of anonymity was to discuss the development operation, said that Israel had hit the military, guide and infrastructure of Hamas, and planned to expand the operation beyond air strikes. The officer accused Hamas to rebuild and plan new attacks. The militants and security forces of Hamas quickly returned to the street in the last few weeks after the ceasefire came into force.

Israel's Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the “goals of hell are opened in Gaza” if the hostages are not published. “We won't stop fighting until all of our hostages are at home and we have reached all war goals,” he said.

According to four hospitals that received the corpses, explosions were heard throughout the Gaza Strip, and at least 69 people were killed in the morning. The territory's civil protection authority said its crews had difficult to carry out rescue efforts, as various areas were targeted.

The conversations about a second phase of the ceasefire had stalled

The strikes came two months after reaching an armistice to pause the war. For over six weeks, Hamas published about three dozen hostages in an exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in a first phase of the ceasefire.

Since this ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the pages could not agree on one way forward with a second phase that aimed to publish the almost 60 remaining hostages and end the war as a whole.

Hamas has called for an end to the war and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops in exchange for the publication of the remaining hostages. Israel says that the war will not end until he rules Hamas and destroys military skills and frees all hostages.

Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, and at the beginning of this month, the entry of all food and aids broke down into the besieged area to put pressure on Hamas.

“After Hamas has repeatedly refused to publish our hostages and reject all offers from the US Presidential Officer Steve Witkoff and the mediators,” said Netanyahu's office early Tuesday.

Taher Nunu, an Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces a moral test: either it allows it to return the crimes committed by the occupation army or forced an obligation to end aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

Gazastell was already in a humanitarian crisis

The war broke out from Hamas with the cross -border attack on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 more hostages.

Israel replied with a military offensive in which, according to local health officers, over 48,000 Palestinians were killed, and displaced estimated 90% of the population of Gaza. The Ministry of Health of the Territory does not differentiate between civilians and militants, but says that more than half of the dead women and children were.

The ceasefire had made it easier for Gaza and admitted hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume what was left of their houses.

But the territory is with great destruction, without direct plans for reconstruction. A resumption of the war threatens to reverse all progress in the past few weeks to stop the humanitarian crisis of Gazas.

A new Israeli ground offensive could also be particularly fatal because so many Palestinian civilians have returned home. Before the ceasefire, civilians largely focused on tent camps that should offer relative security before fighting.

The return could also deteriorate the deep inner fissures in Israel about the fate of the remaining hostages. Many of the hostages published by Hamas are emaciated and malnourished and described tough and described hard conditions in captivity, which put the government under great pressure to extend the ceasefire.

The released hostages have repeatedly asked the government to advance the ceasefire, to return all remaining hostages, and tens of thousands of Israelis have participated in mass demonstrations in recent weeks that have requested an armistice and the return of all hostages.

Mass demonstrations are planned later on Tuesday and Wednesday, after Netanyahus announced this week, the head of the Israel's internal security authority, The Shin Wette. Critics linked the move and said that Netanyahu was an attempt to distract the fault of the failures of his government in the attack and processing of the war on October 7.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire in Gaza in mid -January, the Israeli armed forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who have entered its troops or have entered the military.

Nevertheless, the deal was difficult without an outbreak of great violence. In the first phase of the ceasefire, an exchange of some of Hamas was replaced in return for the free of the Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have tried to convey the next steps in the ceasefire.

Israel wants Hamas to publish half of the remaining hostages to promise a promise to negotiate a permanent ceasefire. Instead, Hamas would like to pursue the ceasefire achieved by the two sides, in which the negotiations in the more difficult second phase of the ceasefire begin, in which the remaining hostages are released and the Israeli forces would withdraw from the Gaza. It is believed that Hamas has 24 living hostages and the body of 35 others.

Mednick reported Tel Aviv, Israel. The AP reporter Ghaith in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.