Hamas Warns that Israel's New Airstrikes Breach their Ceasefire

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
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Hamas Warns that Israel's New Airstrikes Breach their Ceasefire

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Hamas warned that Israel's new airstrikes early Tuesday breached their ceasefire and put the fate of hostages in jeopardy.

Israel said it launched the wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip because of a lack of progress in ongoing talks to extend the ceasefire. It was not immediately clear if the operation was a one-time pressure tactic or if the 17-month-old war was being resumed altogether.

Hamas said Israel’s government was responsible for an “unprovoked escalation” against Palestinians, The Associated Press said.

Gaza’s ministry of health said at least 44 people were killed in the airstrikes early Tuesday.

“This comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the US presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators,” Netanyahu's office said.

Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces a moral test: either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

In Gaza, explosions could be heard at various locations and ambulances were arriving at Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza.

The strikes came two months after a ceasefire was reached to pause the war. Over six weeks, Hamas released roughly three dozen hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

But since the first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the sides have not been able to agree on a way forward with a second phase aimed at releasing the nearly 60 remaining hostages and ending the war altogether. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, and early this month cut off the entry of all food and aid deliveries into the besieged territory to put pressure on Hamas.

The war erupted with Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza's population. The territory's Health Ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu's office said.

The ceasefire had brought some relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume to what remained of their homes.

But the territory is coping with vast destruction, with no immediate plans to rebuild. A resumption of the war threatens to reverse any progress made in recent weeks toward halting Gaza's humanitarian crisis.

While the ceasefire largely halted the fighting, Israel has left troops in Gaza throughout the past two months and continued to strike targets, claiming that Palestinians were trying to carry out attacks or approaching troops in no-go zones.

A number of strikes earlier Monday killed a total of 10 people, according to Palestinian officials.

Two strikes in central Gaza hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas members planting explosives.

An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gaza’s Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood.

In Syria, meanwhile, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former extremist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel.

Strikes in the southern Syrian city of Daraa killed three people and wounded 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city.

The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assad’s forces. It said the materials’ presence posed a threat to Israel.

In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were “observation operatives.” Lebanon’s state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded.

The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.

Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefire’s first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.

Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.



Iraq’s PMF Reinforces Deployment on Border with Syria 

A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
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Iraq’s PMF Reinforces Deployment on Border with Syria 

A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq announced that their forces have deployed in new areas near the border with Syria.

Army commander Amir Rashid Yarallah also toured the border area in western Nineveh near Syria.

No reason was given for the reinforcements, but they took places a day after fierce fighting on the Lebanese-Syrian border and four days after Baghdad announced the killing of the head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The US Central Command said Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was killed in Iraq’s Anbar province in an operation in cooperation with Iraqi intelligence and security forces.

Iraqi authorities have tightened border security since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to prevent the infiltration of gunmen and members of ISIS to the country.

The PMF said its new reinforcements are in line with a deployment plan launched by the Nineveh operations command to boost security and stability in the area.

Forces are equipped with medium and heavy weapons and they will monitor the border to protect the country against any possible threat, it added.

Field sources in al-Anbar said they did not detect any unusual military activity near the border with Syria.

Also on Tuesday, the PMF stated that it did not record any security breach along the border with Syria.

Anbar operations commander Qassem Mosleh told the Iraqi News Agency that his forces are highly trained and armed. Effective cooperation is ongoing with all security agencies, including the army and police.

Moreover, he highlighted the high coordination with tribes in the area that have provided information about ISIS terrorist gangs.

Foreign Miniter Fuad Hussein had received in Baghdad last week his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani for talks on “joint security challenges”.