Hamas threatens hostages will return ‘in coffins;’ Islamic Jihad fires rockets at Israel
No injuries as rocket lands in Zimrat near southern border, IDF intercepts another projectile; Gazans protest against Hamas rule over the Strip for 2nd consecutive day
Two rockets were launched from the central Gaza Strip at southern Israel, the military said on Wednesday, as the Hamas terror group warned Israel that if it pushed ahead with military operations, the hostages would return to Israel in coffins.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. One rocket was intercepted by air defenses and a second impacted outside Zimrat, causing no injuries.
The IDF issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians in and around Gaza City, where the projectiles were fired from, before it carried out strikes in the area.
The IDF later said it struck a terror operative behind the rocket fire who was spotted at the launch site.
The IDF added that it also hit a building in the area used to set off the launches and two other nearby rocket launching sites.
It published footage of the strikes.
צה"ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום, מחבל שזוהה במרחב ממנו בוצעו השיגורים לעבר עוטף עזה.
בהמשך הותקפו המבנה ממנו בוצעו השיגורים ושני אתרי שיגור במרחב pic.twitter.com/KM18fMA9zI— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 26, 2025
Meanwhile, Hamas threatened that the hostages would return “in coffins” should Israel continue air strikes and ground operations in the Strip.
“Every time the occupation attempts to retrieve its captives by force, it ends up bringing them back in coffins,” it said in a statement.
The group claimed they are “doing everything possible to keep the occupation’s captives alive, but the random Zionist bombardment is endangering their lives.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to hit back at Hamas during a speech in the Knesset, warning that Israel would seize territory in Gaza if Hamas continued to refuse to release the remaining hostages.
“The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release our hostages, the stronger the pressure we will exert,” Netanyahu said in the plenum. “This includes the seizure of territories, along with other measures I will not elaborate here.”
Wednesday also saw dozens of Gaza City residents gathered in the Shejaiya neighborhood to protest Hamas rule in the Strip. They burned tires and chanted “Hamas out,” calling for an end to the war.
The demonstrations, exceedingly rare in the past due to the terror group’s often violent suppression of political dissent, marked the second consecutive day of anti-Hamas protests.
Similar protests against the terror group took place across the territory on Tuesday, in Beit Lahiya, the Jabalia refugee camp and Khan Younis.
شرارة اليوم بدأت من الشجاعية…????
“مشان الله، حما$ برا”
“يا شيـ ـعة، يا شيـ ـعة”الشجاعية تلفظ خبثها الآن… افعلها يا شعب الجبارين! pic.twitter.com/uhQjDZLuix
— مصطفـ????ـى عصفــور (@ustafa_ad) March 26, 2025
Footage showed around 100 residents of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, holding a protest calling for an end to the war and an end to Hamas’s governance, with some demonstrators carrying signs reading “Stop war” and “Children in Palestine want to live.”
Israel resumed intense airstrikes across the Strip last week, followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm of a January ceasefire with Hamas.
Hamas killed some 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages during the terror group’s brutal attack on October 7, 2023, triggering the ongoing war. A total of 59 hostages are still held in Gaza, including 34 whom the IDF says are dead.
Netanyahu’s remarks came days after Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas freed the remaining hostages.
In a statement Friday, Katz said: “I ordered [the army] to seize more territory in Gaza… The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 830 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed large-scale strikes on March 18. The figure has not been verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The first phase of a ceasefire that took effect on January 19 saw Hamas release 33 Israeli and dual national hostages, including eight bodies of slain hostages, and Israel freed around 1,800 Palestinian security prisoners.
The deal had originally envisioned a second phase that would see a permanent end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages and many more security prisoners, but negotiations for this phase staggered, with Israel seeking to extend phase one of the ceasefire.
Netanyahu ordered the resumption of fighting in Gaza last week, saying talks moving forward would be held “under fire.”
