Gaza bombings mark end of Israel-Hamas ceasefire after two months

(JTA) — Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza overnight, bringing an end to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire after two months.

Israeli leaders announced in the early hours of Tuesday morning, local time, that they ordered the strikes after Hamas would not agree to frameworks for a hostage deal proposed by Israel and the United States.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to take strong action against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. “This follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.”

Hamas said Israel had broken the ceasefire unilaterally.

The airstrikes plunge the region back into war following two months of tense quiet during which Hamas released dozens of hostages, most of them living, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, while aid flowed into the Gaza Strip. It was the longest period of calm since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that began the war.

The ceasefire paused more than a year of brutal, unceasing fighting, and began in January with the intention of proceeding to a second stage in which Israel would complete its withdrawal in exchange for the 24 remaining living hostages. But there was widespread skepticism that the second stage would manifest, and negotiations over extending the truce began to falter almost as soon as they commenced.