Overnight Israeli strikes in Gaza killed dozens of children, local health officials said, according to The Associated Press.
The Israeli military’s air strikes left 46 children dead among 104 in total, the AP reported, citing figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a post on the social platform X Wednesday that “following a series of strikes, in which dozens of terror targets and terrorists were struck, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire in response to Hamas’ violations.”
“As part of the strikes, the IDF and ISA struck 30 terrorists holding command positions within the terrorist organizations operating in Gaza,” the IDF added in their post. “The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”
Israel’s war in Gaza, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, has left tens of thousands of Palestinians in the territory dead and resulted in mass destruction of infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday directed the military to undertake “forceful” strikes in Gaza, risking the shaky ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu has directed the military to immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said previously on X.
Netanyahu’s order came as Hamas returned an Israeli hostage’s body parts whose remains Israel claimed had already been recovered in the early stages in the conflict.
Last weekend, President Trump put preliminary blame on Hamas in the case that its ceasefire with Israel does not stand, but said the deal currently in place was an “enduring peace.”
“I think it will hold,” Trump said to reporters. “Well, if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their word on something so I think it’s going to hold and if it doesn’t then they’ll have a very big problem.”
