The temporary cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas collapsed Friday morning after a week, as both parties confirmed that hostilities had resumed. Israeli war planes hit targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 32 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the Palestinian territory, as rocket warning sirens blared in southern Israel.
About an hour before the cease-fire expired at 7 a.m. local time (midnight Eastern), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the country’s missile defense system had detected and intercepted a rocket fired toward Israeli territory from Gaza.
“Hamas violated the operational pause and in addition, fired toward Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a social media post. “The IDF has resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas said negotiations had taken place throughout the night in an effort to agree a third extension of the pause in fighting, and that it had made offers including returning the bodies of a mother and her two young children who had been among the hostages seized by the group during its unprecedented Oct. 7 terror attack.
“The occupation refused to deal with all these offers, because it had made a predisposed decision to resume the criminal aggression,” Hamas claimed in a statement, attributing “full responsibility” for the resumption of the war to the Biden administration for its “absolute support for Israel.”
The government of Qatar, where negotiations have been taking place for weeks and where the terms of the cease-fire were agreed, expressed “deep regret” at the resumption of hostilities. It said “negotiations between the the two sides are continuing with the aim of returning to a pause.”
Air raid sirens were heard in southern Israel Friday morning and schools in central Israel were told to open only if they have bomb shelters. Otherwise, classes were to be held remotely.
On Thursday, the seventh and last day of the pause in fighting, eight Israeli hostages were freed from Gaza and 30 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons.
The cease-fire began on Nov. 24 and was renewed twice. More than 100 Hamas-held hostages were released during that time, along with some 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The fragile deal was strained this week by several incidents of violence, including a shooting early Thursday morning in which two gunmen opened fire on a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing at least three Israelis and wounding six others. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed two of those wounded were also U.S. citizens. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The terrorists just came out of the cars and start shooting right on the faces of normal people,” paramedic Israel Polak, who responded to the scene, told CBS News.
Hamas said the shooting was in response to the killing of children in the Palestinian refugee Camp in Jenin. Two boys, ages 8 and 15, were fatally shot at the camp Wednesday.
Blinken, on his third visit to Israel since the war began, met Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and cautioned Israel to protect Gaza civilians.
“Israel has one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world,” Blinken told reporters. “It is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children. And it has an obligation to do so.”
The Israeli hostages released Thursday ranged in age from 17 to 41 and included several dual-nationals.
Among them were siblings Aisha and Bilal Ziyadne, age 17 and 18, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Holit, where they went to work with their father, Yousef, and their older brother, Hamza, according to a spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Their father and older brother are still being held captive by Hamas, the spokesperson said.
Also freed was 21-year-old Mia Schem, a French-Israeli woman who had appeared in a propaganda video released by Hamas in October, where her right arm seemed to be injured. Her aunt told Israeli media Thursday it was operated on by a Palestinian veterinarian.
Her mother, Karen Schem, told CBS News at the time, “It’s very hard to see my daughter, I see the pain, I see that she’s in physical pain.”
More than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel, according to the Israeli military. The group has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and many other nations.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says almost 15,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s retaliatory ground incursion and airstrikes.
— Tucker Reals, Emily Mae Czachor, Chris Livesay and Holly Williams contributed to this report.
