Gaza, March 18 — At least 410 Palestinians including children were killed and 562 injured on Tuesday as Israel launched a large-scale assault across Gaza, breaking the fragile two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
According to reports, the strikes targeted multiple areas, including Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Gaza City in the north, and central regions like Deir el-Balah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the offensive, saying he ordered the military to take “strong action” in response to Hamas’s refusal to release captives or consider offers to extend the truce.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said, citing the group’s repeated rejection of proposals from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and other mediators.
The White House backed Israel’s offensive. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran would face severe consequences.
“As President Trump has made it clear, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay – all hell will break loose,” she said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the strikes, warning they would deepen Gaza’s suffering.
“This will add tragedy onto tragedy,” he said, describing Israel’s resort to further military force as exacerbating the “catastrophic conditions” faced by Palestinians.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington, DC-based Muslim advocacy group, denounced the assault, accusing Netanyahu’s government of “resuming its horrific and genocidal attacks” on Gaza’s civilian population.
“Netanyahu would clearly rather massacre Palestinian children in refugee camps than risk the disintegration of his cabinet by exchanging all those held by both sides and permanently ending the genocidal war,” CAIR said, referencing the ceasefire deal brokered by President Trump.
Egypt, acting as a mediator alongside Qatar and the US, condemned the strikes as a “flagrant violation” of the agreement. Its foreign ministry warned the escalation threatened to destabilize the region with “serious consequences.”
