This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip, shows an explosion in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave during an Israeli attack on November 22, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas movement.
John Macdougall | Afp | Getty Images
Israeli bombs hit the Gaza Strip Friday morning after a week-long truce with Hamas expired and Israeli forces accused the Palestinian militant group of breaching the terms of their agreement.
“Following sirens that sounded in communities near Gaza, the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted a launch from Gaza,” a post on the Israeli Defense Forces’ official X account read at 6:18 a.m. local time.
One hour later, it posted an update that read: “Hamas violated the operational pause, and in addition, fired toward Israeli territory. The IDF has resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.”
The truce itself expired at 7 a.m. local time on Friday. It went into place on Nov. 24, initially meant to last four days but was extended for three more days as Qatari and Egyptian negotiators worked to further the pause in fighting. That allowed for many more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged and more humanitarian aid to enter the battered Gaza Strip.
In total, as of Friday, 110 of the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on Oct. 7 have been released. That includes 78 Israeli and dual-nationals, mostly women and children, freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners who had been held in Israeli prisons. Under the terms of that deal, three Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for every one Israeli hostage.
Separately, three Israeli-Russian dual nationals were released as part of a deal between Hamas and Moscow, and 24 non-Israeli foreign nationals — 23 Thai and one Filipino — were freed in an agreement between Hamas and those captives’ governments. Before the Nov. 24 deal, four other Israeli hostages were freed and one was rescued in an operation by IDF forces.
Around 140 Israeli hostages are still in Gaza, mostly men and soldiers, for which Hamas is expected to set a higher price. Egyptian and Qatari negotiators said on Thursday they were pushing for a new two-day extension, but those efforts apparently failed after what the IDF said was a rocket attack from Gaza.
The resumption of combat comes a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel, his third since the war began, where he met with Israeli political and military leaders and urged the continuation of the then-ongoing truce and stressed the protection of Gaza civilians.
Blinken also visited the occupied West Bank, where he met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The secretary’s trip took place as a shooting by Palestinian gunmen in West Jerusalem killed at least three people, Israeli police said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Israel’s war with Hamas that began on Oct. 7 is the bloodiest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict yet, and has killed more than 14,500 people in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to health authorities there.
The air and land offensive by Israeli forces was launched in retaliation to a terrorist attack by Hamas on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw another roughly 240 taken hostage into Gaza. Israel authorities say that around 150 hostages remain there.