Gaza (TDI): The health ministry in Gaza said that the death toll from a massive Israeli campaign launched throughout the Palestinian territory has surpassed 400, including children, as attacks hit dozens of targets early on Tuesday, ending a weeks-long standoff over extending the ceasefire that halted fighting in January.
“The health ministry has recorded over 400 deaths, most of them Palestinian women and minors, and hundreds of injured, dozens of them in critical condition,” the head of the ministry, Mohammed Zaqut said.
Gaza’s civil defense agency spokesperson Mahmud Basal said that the military operation was underway and affecting schools and camps sheltering displaced people.
Attacks were reported in multiple locations, including northern Gaza, Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces, which claimed it hit dozens of targets, said the attacks would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond air strikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.
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The strikes were far wider in scale than the regular series of drone attacks the Israeli military has said it has conducted against individuals or small groups of suspected fighters and follow weeks of failed efforts to agree an extension to the truce agreed on January 19.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams dealt with 86 killed and 134 injured, but others were brought to overwhelmed hospitals by private cars.
Officials from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip and Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza City — which have all been widely damaged in the onslaught — said that altogether they had received about 85 dead.
Authorities also reported separately that sixteen members of one family in southern Gaza’s Rafah had been killed.
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In Washington, a White House spokesperson said Israel had consulted the United States administration before it carried out the attacks, which the military claimed targeted mid-level Hamas commanders and leadership officials as well as infrastructure belonging to the group.
“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire deal but instead chose refusal and war,” White House spokesperson Brian Hughes said.
