Israel threatens to intensify Gaza strikes unless Hamas resumes ‘genuine’ talks

Israel on Tuesday vowed to intensify its attacks on terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip unless Hamas returned to “genuine” negotiations to free the remaining hostages, as the military continued its large-scale bombing campaign that began in the early morning hours.

The strikes, killing at least 400 Palestinians according to Hamas health authorities, including several top members of the terror group, brought a fragile ceasefire in Gaza to an end after nearly two months of relative calm in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

After a large wave of overnight airstrikes on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said on Tuesday afternoon the strikes during the day had targeted cells of terror operatives, rocket-launching positions, weapons, and other military infrastructure.

The weapons and infrastructure were to have been used by the terror groups in planned attacks on Israel, the military added.

The IDF also announced that it had eliminated the de-facto prime minister of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and several other top officials in the terror group in strikes on Tuesday.

The military released footage of some of the overnight strikes, which according to the IDF targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the terror group’s politburo, and its infrastructure. Islamic Jihad members and infrastructure were also targeted.

Footage released by the IDF on March 18. 2025, shows overnight airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces)

The initial wave of airstrikes lasted less than 10 minutes, according to the military.

At 2:10 a.m. the order was given, and fighter jets dropped their bombs on numerous targets within two minutes, while drone and attack helicopter strikes took another eight minutes. In all, the IDF says some 80 targets were struck.

The strikes were planned in advance, and the IDF said it took into account the hostages being held by Hamas. Military representatives spoke with the families of hostages overnight and updated them on the developments.

The IDF has repeatedly said amid the war it does not target areas in Gaza where it suspects hostages are being held. Still, some hostages have been killed by Israeli strikes, according to the IDF’s own investigations.

New rules

Earlier today, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hamas that Israel’s actions would “intensify.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “the murderous Hamas needs to understand: If they do not release all our hostages, our blows will intensify.”

The remarks, provided by his office, were made during an assessment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and other officials on Tuesday morning.

Later in the day, during a visit to the Tel Nof Airbase, Katz said that Israel would not end the fighting against Hamas until all of the hostages were returned.

“Hamas must realize that the rules of the game have changed, and if it does not immediately release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open, and it will find itself facing the full intensity of the IDF in the air, sea, and land, until its complete elimination,” he said.

“We will not stop fighting until all the hostages are returned home and all threats to the southern residents are removed,” he added, according to remarks provided by his office.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem has a concrete plan “to move forward” with its military campaign in Gaza, adding that “if at any point the other side decides to go back to genuinely negotiating, and we go back to genuine talks, then we’ll stop [the offensive]. At the moment, we’re left without any choice.”

A separate Israeli official told the Israel Hayom newspaper that Israel’s goal in the renewed air campaign in Gaza is to push Hamas to agree to the original “Witkoff proposal” for hostage talks.

The outline, attributed by Israel to US special envoy Steve Witkoff, would see half the hostages released at the beginning of an extension of the ceasefire, which would extend till after Passover in mid-April. The rest would be released if an agreement is reached on ending the war.

“Without small releases of hostage and without games, the goal is to get everyone out,” the official said.

“Israel waited three weeks for Hamas to begin serious talks on the Witkoff outline,” the official added. “That didn’t happen.”

Israel’s return to fighting in Gaza was “fully coordinated” with the United States Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said at a press briefing Tuesday, adding that “Israel has thanked President [Donald] Trump and his administration for their unyielding support.”

Speaking in Jerusalem to members of AIPAC’s board of directors, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the decision to resume attacks in Gaza was made “several days ago,” adding that the strikes would continue beyond Tuesday.

Witkoff “made two different proposals and Hamas rejected both of them,” Sa’ar said. “We found ourselves at a dead end, with no hostages released and no military action. This is a situation that cannot continue.”

“This is not a one-day attack,” Sa’ar emphasized, adding that the operation would continue “over the coming days.”

Hundreds killed, including senior Hamas officials, Islamic Jihad spokesman

According to the Hamas-run health ministry — which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. — the death toll from the past day of Israeli strikes in Gaza reached 404 and at least 562 people were wounded, as a spokesman for the Red Cross said that many medical facilities in the Gaza Strip are “overwhelmed” after Israel resumed its bombing of the territory.

The figures could not be verified.

“What we heard from Palestine Crescent colleagues this morning is that many medical facilities are literally overwhelmed across Gaza,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said at a briefing in Geneva.

While Hamas claimed that Israel’s resumption of attacks constituted a “massacre” of civilians, the group confirmed that at least four senior officials were killed in the IDF strikes overnight.

Hamas announced the deaths of Issam Da’alis, the head of the governmental activity monitoring committee, a position roughly akin to prime minister; Ahmad al-Khatta, the director-general of Hamas’s justice ministry; Mahmoud Abu Watfa, who headed the terror group’s interior ministry, responsible for Hamas’s police and internal security services in Gaza; and Bahjat Abu Sultan, head of Hamas’s internal security forces.

In a statement, the IDF said it targeted and killed those four senior Hamas officials, as part of the wide-scale bombing campaign against dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip since early Tuesday morning.

The IDF said the strikes were aimed at “causing a blow to the military and governmental capabilities of the Hamas terror organization, and remove a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”

Da’alis, the de-facto Hamas prime minister, had replaced Rawhi Mushtaha following his killing by Israel in July 2024.

The military said that as part of his role, Da’alis was “entrusted with the functioning of the Hamas terror regime in the Gaza Strip” and coordinating all the branches of the organization.

The IDF said it could also confirm that al-Khatta, Abu Watfa, and Abu Sultan were killed in airstrikes on Tuesday.

Additionally, the spokesperson for the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, known by the nom de guerre Abu Hamza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the terror group announced.

Abu Hamza, whose real name is Naji Abu Saif, was killed alongside his wife and several members of his family.

Despite the resumption of fighting, the IDF Home Front Command said it was easing some restrictions on civilians in southern Israel.

Following an assessment, the Home Front Command adjusted the activity scale in the Gaza border communities and some towns in the Western Negev and Western Lachish regions from “limited activity” to “partial activity.”

This would allow schools and workplaces to operate as usual, provided an adequate bomb shelter can be reached in time.

Gatherings were also now limited to 100 people outdoors and 500 people indoors, though beaches remain closed, according to the latest Home Front Command guidelines.

‘I haven’t slept a single minute since yesterday’

Following the collapse of the ceasefire and the ongoing strikes on Gaza, one Palestinian civilian told The Times of Israel: “I’m more scared today than I have been in the past year and three months of war. The airstrikes seem more random today than they were before,” he said.

One Palestinian described the early Tuesday strikes  as “terrifying.”

“There were airstrikes all night. I don’t understand which side broke the ceasefire, some say it was Hamas, others say it was Israel,” he told The Times of Israel. His only wish, he added, is “to have a ceasefire. We want peace. We want to live a life of dignity.”

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, is originally from northern Gaza but relocated to central Gaza with his close family at the start of the war, following IDF evacuation orders.

On Tuesday he told The Times of Israel he is considering returning north due to the renewed strikes. “It’s not safe there, but I want to be with my family and friends, to be near them.” However, he noted that many others are attempting to move to safer areas within Gaza due to the escalating strikes.

Another Palestinian, Basel Al-Qaran, originally from Gaza but who had lived in Israel for the past 12 years before being recently deported back to Gaza, shared his experience: “I’m in Al-Shuka, Rafah, near the Israeli border. Everyone has already left the area. I have no food or water; I’m fasting. I haven’t slept a single minute since yesterday. I have no one, I’m completely alone.”

On Tuesday morning, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to Palestinians living on the edges of the Gaza Strip. Footage showed some residents leaving their homes in eastern and northern Gaza.

Regarding the strikes, Al-Qaran added: “The noises were unbearable. The light from the airstrikes was incredibly close to me last night. I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. There was an airstrike on a house near me with 21 people inside – only two made it out alive. I’m still in shock.”

Another Palestinian in Gaza who wishes to remain anonymous told The Times of Israel: “The situation in Gaza is terrifying and difficult. We have nothing to do with this escalation—we are civilians.”

Much of Gaza now lies in ruin after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, amid horrific acts of brutality, and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.