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The foreign ministry of Qatar, which has led the cease-fire talks, said in a statement that negotiations were continuing even amid the fighting. The resumption of airstrikes “complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the strip,” the ministry said.
Under the truce that went into effect last Friday, more than 100 Israeli and dual-national hostages — mostly Israelis abducted in the Hamas-led attacks — were freed from Gaza in exchange for Israel’s release of 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. On both sides, the trade focused on women and children. Officials from both Israel and Hamas said the armed group had few hostages remaining in those categories.
Early Friday, shortly before the truce was set to end, Israel’s military said on the social media site X that it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza. Automated rocket alert systems reported that air-raid sirens had sounded in several areas of southern Israel, indicating rockets or shells had been fired from the territory.
Then, just after the 7 a.m. deadline passed, both the Israeli military and Gaza’s Interior Ministry reported that Israel was carrying out strikes across Gaza. Air-raid sirens sounded in several parts of southern Israel, indicating that Hamas or allied armed groups in Gaza had fired toward Israel.
Gaza health officials swiftly began reporting casualties. By midmorning, at least 32 people had been killed in Gaza since the resumption of fighting, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gazan health ministry.
The halt in fighting had given Gaza’s 2.2 million people a brief reprieve from withering Israeli strikes. Since Oct. 7, when Hamas led terrorist attacks on Israel that the Israeli government says killed about 1,200 people and resulted in about 240 hostages being taken, Israel has waged a devastating military campaign that Gazan health authorities say has killed more than 13,000 people.
Most of Gaza’s people have been displaced and are experiencing acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel amid widespread destruction. The weeklong pause allowed more aid to reach the battered enclave through the Egyptian border than the trickle that had made it in before the truce. Wael Abu Omar, the spokesman for the Gazan side of the border crossing, said that no aid trucks entered Gaza on Friday.
“I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza,” the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said in a statement. “The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian cease-fire,” he added.
Reporting was contributed by Aaron Boxerman, Iyad Abuheweila, Hwaida Saad and Johnatan Reiss.
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