MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Israeli military says the ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza is officially over, and a new offensive against the militant group there has begun. That's after a series of surprise Israeli airstrikes overnight killed more than 400 Palestinians - many of them children - and injured hundreds more. And that's according to health officials there. It has been one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the war began more than 17 months ago. I want to bring in NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, who's been following this from Tel Aviv. Hey, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So Israel announcing the end of the ceasefire, which - the ceasefire had been fragile, but it also had allowed for what passes for relative quiet over these last couple of months in Gaza.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
KELLY: What more do we know?
LONSDORF: Well, earlier this evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the country. He said that Israel had exhausted every effort through negotiations to bring the remaining hostages back to Israel. He said that Hamas had rejected every offer Israel had put forward to make that happen. I should note Hamas says that's not true. Netanyahu said a return to war was the only option left and warned that the strikes in Gaza today were just the beginning.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: From this point forward, he said, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing force. He added that further negotiations will only take place while fighting is happening. Earlier today, the Israeli military posted on social media ordering Palestinians from several neighborhoods in Gaza to evacuate immediately to avoid imminent strikes that it said were targeting Hamas. You know, these are the kinds of orders that were issued constantly before the ceasefire, displacing Palestinians over and over again.
KELLY: Well, and I'm wondering why now? Why is Israel launching these airstrikes now?
LONSDORF: So Israel says these strikes were targeting senior Hamas officials and that this new offensive is to pressure Hamas to accept a proposal by President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, for the release of more Israeli hostages. Just to be clear, the Witkoff plan that they're pushing is different than the original deal that both sides agreed to back in January. The first phase of that deal expired at the beginning of this month. Hamas has been pushing to go to the second phase of that plan, but Israel is now demanding the Witkoff plan.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of internal Israeli politics at work here. Netanyahu has been under a lot of pressure from far-right members of his government to return to war in Gaza. Many here feel like today was Netanyahu playing into those pressures.
KELLY: What kind of response are you tracking so far from Hamas?
LONSDORF: Hamas has confirmed that five of its high-level members were killed in these overnight strikes. The militant group has also warned that these strikes are putting the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza in danger and leaving them to a, quote, "unknown fate." In terms of ceasefire proposals, senior Hamas official Basem Naim told NPR today that it has not rejected that Witkoff proposal, even though it's different from what was originally agreed upon. He said the group remains committed to an agreement. But he also said that he believed that there would be a retaliation by Hamas on Israel for the strikes earlier today.
KELLY: You always have to think about the ordinary people caught in the middle of this, people in Gaza...
LONSDORF: Yeah.
KELLY: ...Where we said more than 400 Palestinians were killed today. And this after more than two weeks of an Israeli blockade on aid. What was it like there today?
LONSDORF: So NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, was at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City this morning. He described a chaotic scene. The courtyard of the hospital was filled with dozens of bodies, many of them children, you know, people crying. Many he talked to were in shock. They couldn't believe that the war had started again. One man he talked to, Suleiman Graiga, he was at the hospital after being pulled from the rubble with his wife. He said the house next door to them, where much of his extended family lived, was directly hit and many of them were killed.
SULEIMAN GRAIGA: (Speaking Arabic).
LONSDORF: "I was expecting the ceasefire to continue and for things to get better," he says. "We need the world to intervene."
KELLY: And very briefly, Kat, what are you hearing from people there in Israel?
LONSDORF: So polls show that a majority of Israelis do not want to return to war. They want a renewal of the talks and for the remaining hostages to be released from Gaza. There were protests all across the country demanding that. You know, many of the hostage family members feel that Netanyahu is basically forsaking the hostages and leaving them to die in Gaza.
KELLY: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
