War rages in Gaza again after talks fail to extend Israel-Hamas truce

Israel'swarplanespoundedGazaon Friday after talks to extend a week-old truce with Hamas collapsed, sending dozens of wounded and dead Palestinians into hospitals and forcing hundreds to flee inthe streets.

About an hour before the ceasefire was to expire early Friday, Israel said it intercepted a volley of rockets fired from Gaza. Minutes after it expired, the military announced a resumption of combat operationsand strikes soon began.

Eastern areas of Khan Younis in southernGazacame under intensebombardment as the deadline lapsed shortly after dawn, with columns of smoke rising into the sky, Reuters journalists in the city said.

Residents took to the road withbelongings heaped up in carts, searching for shelter further west.

WATCH | Building destroyed in Khan Younis after truce ends:

Bombardment resumes as Israel-Hamas truce comes to an end

11 months ago

Duration 0:51

Areas in southern Gaza once again came under intense bombardment after the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday. In Khan Younis, rescuers carried people from the remains of a destroyed building. 'At dinnertime, people sat down to eat [and] a bomb fell on the entire building,' a man told CBC freelancer Mohamed El Saife. 'We dont want aid. We dont want medicine. We want a ceasefire.'

In the north of the enclave, previously the main war zone, huge plumes of smoke rose above the ruins, seen from across the fence in Israel. The rattle of gunfire and thud of explosions rang out above the sound of barking dogs.

Sirens blared across southern Israel as militants fired rockets from the coastal enclave into towns.Hamas said it had targeted Tel Aviv, but there were no reports of casualties or damage there.

• What questions do you have aboutthe war between Israel and Hamas? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

By the evening, health officials in Hamas-controlled Gazasaid Israeli airstrikes had killed 184 people, wounded at least 589 others and hit more than 20 houses.

Israel andHamasaccused each other of wrecking thenegotiations and triggering the resumption of violence, though the White Housesingled outthemilitant group, saying it hadfailed to produce a newlist of hostagesto release to enable an extension of the truce.

Israeliofficials haveswornto annihilate Hamasin response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant groupthey saykilled 1,200 people and left240 hostages taken. Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, has ruledGazasince 2007.

Israel's assault haslaid waste to much of the territory. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000Gazans have been confirmed killed and thousands more are missing and feared buried under rubble.

WATCH | U.S. secretary of stateblamesHamas for end of temporary ceasefire:

Blinken says pause in fighting ended 'because of Hamas'

11 months ago

Duration 2:14

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking from Dubai, U.A.E., blamed Hamas for the end of the temporary pause in fighting between Israel and the militant group.

Israel's military said its ground, air and naval forces had struck more than 200 of what it called "terror targets" in the enclave since the morning.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said he had been in one of Israel's war jets to watch the assault up close.

"The results are impressive. Hamas only understands force, and therefore we will continue to act until we achieve the goals of the war," he said.

The United Nations said the fighting would worsen an extreme humanitarian emergency.

"Hell on Earthhas returned toGaza," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office in Geneva.

The PalestineRed CrescentSociety said Israeli forces had stopped all deliveries of aid into Gaza againthrough the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

COGAT, the Israeli agency for civilian co-ordination with the Palestinians, said aid agreed to under the truce had been stoppedbut, at Washington's request, "dozens" of other trucks with water, food and medical supplies had got through to Gaza.

Medics and witnesses said Friday'sbombing was most intense in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southernGazaStrip, where hundreds of thousands ofGazans have been sheltering from fighting further north. Houses in central and northern areas were also hit.

Warning leaflets dropped in Gaza

Residents and officials from Hamas said its fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades battled Israeli troops and tanks in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north.

Gaza health officials said six people died in an Israeli strike on a house in the central city of Deiral-Balah. There was no confirmation of either report from Israel.

WATCH | Temporary Israel-Hamas truce ends:

Israel and Hamas truce expires, fighting resumes

11 months ago

Duration 4:21

Minutes after the truce between Israel and Hamas expired, Israel announced it has restarted combat operations against Hamas, with renewed airstrikes in Gaza. In southern Israel, rocket sirens sounded.

Further south in Rafah, residents carried several small children, streaked with blood and covered in dust, out of a house that had been struck. Mohammed Abu-Elneen, whose father owns the house, said it was sheltering peopledisplaced from elsewhere.

At the nearby Abu Yousef al-NajjarHospital, the first wave of wounded were men and boys.

Gazans said they feared the bombing of southern parts of the enclave could herald an expansion of the war into areas Israel had previously described as safe.

Leaflets dropped on eastern areas of Khan Younis ordered residents of four towns to evacuate not to other areas in Khan Younis, as in the past, but further south to the crowded town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.

"You have to evacuate immediately and go to the shelters in the Rafah area. Khan Younis is a dangerous fighting zone. You have been warned," said the leaflets, written in Arabic.

Israel released a link to a map showingGazadivided into hundreds of districts, which it said would be used in future to communicate areas that were safe.

Meanwhile, a Lebanese official said Israeli shelling killed three people in south Lebanon on Friday. And the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border in support of Palestinians.

The Israeli army said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and that air defences had intercepted two launches. Reuters could not confirm any of the battlefield accounts.

Mediators say negotiations continuing

Each of the warring sides blamed the other for causing the collapse of the truce by rejecting terms to extend the daily release of hostages held by militants in exchange for Palestinian detainees.

The pause, which began on Nov. 24, had been extended twice, and Israel had said it could continue as long as Hamas released 10 hostages each day. But after seven days during which women, children and foreign hostages were freed, mediators failed at the final hour to find a formula to release more, including Israeli soldiers and civilian men.

Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all of the women it held. A Palestinian official said the breakdown occurred over female Israeli soldiers.

Qatar, which has played a central role in mediation efforts, said negotiations werestill ongoingwithIsraelis and Palestinians to restore the trucebut that Israel's renewed bombardment ofGazahad complicated its efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ending a trip to the region, said Hamas had started firing rockets before the pause in hostilities expired, carried out a deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday and had not followed through on commitments on hostages.

"It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made," Blinken said.