Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that massive overnight strikes on Gaza which reportedly killed hundreds of people were 'only the beginning' and that future negotiations with Hamas 'will take place only under fire'.
The strikes, by far the largest since a truce took effect on January 19, killed more than 400 people across the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Netanyahu said in a video statement on Tuesday evening that 'Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you - and them - this is only the beginning'.
Negotiations have stalled over how to proceed with a ceasefire whose first phase has expired, with Israel and Hamas disagreeing on whether to move to a new phase intended to bring the war to an end.
The Israeli premier said in his address that 'from now on, negotiations will take place only under fire,' before adding: 'Military pressure is essential for the release of additional hostages'.
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the return of all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack that sparked the war.
By Tuesday afternoon, witnesses in Gaza said the attacks had largely stopped, though sporadic bombing continued.
'Today I felt that Gaza is a real hell,' said Jihan Nahhal, a 43-year-old woman from Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) warned that massive overnight strikes on Gaza which reportedly killed hundreds of people were 'only the beginning'
A cloud of smoke billows as destroyed buildings are pictured in the northern Gaza Strip from across the border in southern Israel on March 18, 2025
An Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moves at a position in southern Israel along the border fence with the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025
'Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war.'
Hamas, which has not responded militarily so far, accused Israel of attempting to force it to surrender.
The White House said Israel consulted US President Donald Trump's administration before launching the strikes, while Israel said the return to fighting was 'fully coordinated' with Washington.
A State Department spokesperson said that 'Hamas bears total responsibility... for the resumption of hostilities'.
A Hamas statement later urged friendly countries to 'pressure' the United States to bring to an end the strikes by its ally Israel.
The United Nations and countries around the world condemned the strikes, while the families of Israeli hostages pleaded with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the violence, fearing for the fate of their loved ones.
Netanyahu's office said Tuesday's operation was ordered after 'Hamas's repeated refusal to release our hostages'.
Hamas said Israel had 'decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement' brokered by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and warned that the resumption of violence would 'impose a death sentence' on the remaining living hostages.
A Palestinian man is comforted as he weeps next to a truck carrying the bodies of the victims of Israeli overnight airstrikes before transporting them from the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza for burial on March 18, 2025
This image shared on social media claims to show the aftermath of the strikes early Tuesday
The group's leader, Sami Abu Zuhri, told AFP the aim of the strikes was 'to impose a surrender agreement, writing it in the blood of Gaza'.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said that 'Hamas must understand that the rules of the game have changed', threatening to unleash the Israeli military until the group's 'complete destruction' if it did not immediately free the hostages.
Hamas said the head of its government in Gaza, Essam al-Dalis, was among several officials killed.
In the southern Gaza Strip, AFP footage showed people rushing wounded people on stretchers, including young children, to hospital. Bodies covered with white shrouds were also taken to the hospital's mortuary.
The Gaza health ministry said the bodies of 413 people had been received by hospitals, adding 'a number of victims are still under the rubble'.
UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bollen, speaking to AFP in southern Gaza, said the deaths include 'dozens and dozens of children, with many more children wounded'.
Medical facilities that 'have already been decimated' by the war were now 'overwhelmed', she added.
Families of Israeli hostages rallied in front of Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem, and a campaign group accused the government of causing 'the explosion of the ceasefire, which could sacrifice their family members'.
People look for survivors in the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025
An injured man searches through the rubble of his home, destroyed in an Israeli strike, for salvageable items at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025
Governments in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere called for the renewed hostilities to end.
'The images of burning tents in refugee camps are shocking. Fleeing children and internally displaced persons must never be used as leverage in negotiations,' said Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Hamas backer Iran denounced the wave of attacks as a 'continuation of the genocide' in the Palestinian territories, while Russia and China warned against escalation.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the strikes were part of 'deliberate efforts to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable and force the Palestinians into displacement'.
Trump has floated a proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza, an idea that was rejected by Palestinians and governments in the region and beyond, but embraced by some Israeli politicians.
Hours after the wave of strikes began, Netanyahu's Likud movement said that a far-right party that had quit the government in January in protest at the Gaza truce would rejoin.
The ceasefire in Gaza took effect on January 19, largely halting the war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
That first phase of the deal ended in early March after numerous exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian children walk past rubble as people make their way to flee their homes, after the Israel army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighborhoods, following heavy Israeli strikes, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025
But the two sides have been unable to agree on the next steps, with Hamas demanding negotiations for a second phase, which should lead to a lasting ceasefire.
Israel had sought to extend the first phase, cutting off aid and electricity to Gaza over the deadlock.
Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel's retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 48,577 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the two sides.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
On Tuesday evening, Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels - have pursued a campaign of attacks in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians - launched a missile at Israel, which the military said was intercepted.
