Gaza: More than 300 people, mostly children were killed in a brutal attack by Israel in air attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to various reports, the attack happened early morning and continued for hours. At the time, most of the people were asleep.
Meanwhile, Hamas said that Israel carried out a “treacherous” attack on besieged and defenceless civilians in order to overturn the Gaza ceasefire deal. They accused Israel of “deliberately sabotaging” the ceasefire, which had been in place since January 19.
Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau said that Israel is sacrificing the lives of its remaining captives in Palestine.
“Netanyahu’s decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the prisoners of the occupation and a death sentence against them,” al-Risheq said in a statement shared by CNN.
“The enemy will not achieve through war and destruction what it has failed to achieve through negotiations,” he added.
Qatar based website Al Jazeera, meanwhile said that Israel itself had decided to remove itself from the negotiations for phase two of this deal that would ultimately see an end to the war and the release of all 59 Israeli captives still being held in Gaza.
As the conversations on ceasefire were going on, Israel has ended its ceasefire agreement with Hamas by launching its biggest attack on the Gaza Strip since the truce began on January 19.
According to Al Jazeera, negotiations were supposed to happen weeks ago. However, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely refused to send a delegation to the Egyptian capital or the Qatari capital to meet with mediators to discuss what can be done for the next phase of the deal.
Meanwhile, Israeli politicians have welcomed the renewed attacks on Gaza, which have so far killed hundreds of people, including many children.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the return “to intensive attacks” on Gaza is a gradual process that had been planned since the new Israeli army chief of staff took office earlier this month.
He added the return to fighting will be “completely different” from before.
On the other hand, the US has laid the blame for Israel’s surprise attacks on Hamas.
Hamas, however, complied with all terms of phase one of the ceasefire agreement that was signed with Israel on January 17, with Egypt and Qatar as mediators, and the US as guarantor.
