Zürcher Nachrichten - Israel resumes deadly Gaza bombardment after truce breaks down

EUR -
AED 3.766568
AFN 72.914596
ALL 97.781164
AMD 406.953016
ANG 1.848117
AOA 935.240708
ARS 1062.018828
AUD 1.66908
AWG 1.848433
AZN 1.747392
BAM 1.946712
BBD 2.070496
BDT 125.084856
BGN 1.957145
BHD 0.386572
BIF 3033.446266
BMD 1.025483
BND 1.402462
BOB 7.085476
BRL 6.280229
BSD 1.025493
BTN 88.251905
BWP 14.432751
BYN 3.355896
BYR 20099.463259
BZD 2.059845
CAD 1.489201
CDF 2943.136063
CHF 0.93984
CLF 0.037515
CLP 1035.163783
CNY 7.519562
CNH 7.551092
COP 4455.979221
CRC 517.623998
CUC 1.025483
CUP 27.175295
CVE 109.754248
CZK 25.104029
DJF 182.24921
DKK 7.467262
DOP 62.951042
DZD 139.334285
EGP 51.791557
ERN 15.382242
ETB 128.678041
FJD 2.398301
FKP 0.812164
GBP 0.840043
GEL 2.89703
GGP 0.812164
GHS 15.12557
GIP 0.812164
GMD 73.325971
GNF 8866.522649
GTQ 7.912983
GYD 214.545193
HKD 7.988255
HNL 26.079291
HRK 7.355692
HTG 133.963772
HUF 413.762205
IDR 16732.956986
ILS 3.778509
IMP 0.812164
INR 88.391954
IQD 1343.333817
IRR 43160.012072
ISK 144.839589
JEP 0.812164
JMD 160.7894
JOD 0.727482
JPY 161.713554
KES 132.728636
KGS 89.217365
KHR 4144.973704
KMF 490.232455
KPW 922.933964
KRW 1511.689901
KWD 0.316366
KYD 0.854577
KZT 541.195798
LAK 22375.292726
LBP 91829.583004
LKR 302.054362
LRD 191.759782
LSL 19.487836
LTL 3.027985
LVL 0.620305
LYD 5.068537
MAD 10.305841
MDL 19.166024
MGA 4855.71127
MKD 61.514971
MMK 3330.728196
MNT 3484.590487
MOP 8.223353
MRU 40.922963
MUR 48.023749
MVR 15.796269
MWK 1778.137975
MXN 21.24606
MYR 4.611088
MZN 65.532176
NAD 19.489539
NGN 1591.006216
NIO 37.73385
NOK 11.76824
NPR 141.202164
NZD 1.844062
OMR 0.394366
PAB 1.025493
PEN 3.858488
PGK 4.11087
PHP 60.512755
PKR 285.571367
PLN 4.269649
PYG 8052.039455
QAR 3.738249
RON 4.980877
RSD 117.193241
RUB 104.230108
RWF 1426.452286
SAR 3.849445
SBD 8.65448
SCR 14.727599
SDG 616.315522
SEK 11.508587
SGD 1.405326
SHP 0.812164
SLE 23.330115
SLL 21503.865086
SOS 586.010091
SRD 35.999613
STD 21225.423919
SVC 8.972029
SYP 2576.556598
SZL 19.485557
THB 35.613006
TJS 11.187746
TMT 3.58919
TND 3.291435
TOP 2.401787
TRY 36.315119
TTD 6.961047
TWD 33.955073
TZS 2567.25936
UAH 43.363404
UGX 3791.595782
USD 1.025483
UYU 44.771651
UZS 13286.171552
VES 55.18254
VND 26016.499127
VUV 121.747374
WST 2.833191
XAF 652.959778
XAG 0.033731
XAU 0.000381
XCD 2.771419
XDR 0.789675
XOF 652.918582
XPF 119.331742
YER 255.601965
ZAR 19.595798
ZMK 9230.579631
ZMW 28.327969
ZWL 330.205049
  • BCC

    -1.5200

    115.88

    -1.31%

  • SCS

    -0.3300

    10.97

    -3.01%

  • NGG

    -1.8500

    56.13

    -3.3%

  • AZN

    0.4300

    67.01

    +0.64%

  • GSK

    -0.6600

    33.09

    -1.99%

  • RIO

    0.2100

    58.84

    +0.36%

  • BP

    0.1700

    31.29

    +0.54%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    22.92

    -0.79%

  • RBGPF

    -2.6900

    59.31

    -4.54%

  • BTI

    -0.8400

    35.9

    -2.34%

  • BCE

    -0.6700

    22.96

    -2.92%

  • JRI

    -0.1400

    12.08

    -1.16%

  • RELX

    -0.4000

    46.37

    -0.86%

  • RYCEF

    -0.1000

    7.1

    -1.41%

  • CMSD

    -0.1500

    23.25

    -0.65%

  • VOD

    -0.1600

    8.05

    -1.99%

Israel resumes deadly Gaza bombardment after truce breaks down
Israel resumes deadly Gaza bombardment after truce breaks down / Photo: MOHAMMED ABED - AFP

Israel resumes deadly Gaza bombardment after truce breaks down

Israel resumed its deadly bombardment of Gaza on Friday after a truce broke down, saying it struck more than 200 targets in the densely inhabited Palestinian territory despite international calls for a renewed pause.

Text size:

Clouds of grey smoke from strikes shot up on the Gaza skyline and rockets fired from the territory streaked into Israel after Hamas's armed wing received "the order to resume combat," according to a source close to the Palestinian militant group.

The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 178 people had been killed in Gaza since the pause in hostilities expired early Friday and ground battles and Israel air strikes resumed.

UN agencies warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza as hospitals again struggled to cope with the wounded after a week-long respite.

The truce had seen Hamas release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians prisoners and paused weeks of fighting sparked by the group's deadly attacks on Israel on October 7.

Israel alleged that Hamas attempted to break the truce before it ended at 0500 GMT by firing a rocket, and that it failed to produce a list of further hostages that could have been released on Friday.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the White House called for the break in fighting to be restored.

"We continue to work with Israel, Egypt and Qatar on efforts to extend the humanitarian pause in Gaza," a US National Security Council spokesperson said, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel following diplomatic efforts to shore up the truce.

- 'Mother of all thumpings' -

Seven days of hostage-prisoner exchanges had yielded tearful reunions of Israeli families with their released relatives and jubilation in the streets of the occupied West Bank as Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jails.

Israel accused Hamas of failing to secure an extension of the truce on Friday by not releasing a new group of hostages and firing a rocket at Israel.

Blinken told reporters later in Dubai that the United States remained "intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back" and "pursuing the process that had worked for seven days" during the truce.

But Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters: "Having chosen to hold onto our women, Hamas will now take the mother of all thumpings."

The Israeli military said "ground, air and naval forces struck terror targets in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, including in Khan Yunis and Rafah."

AFP journalists saw, and visited the aftermath, of several bombings.

Outside the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, a man in a blue sweater bellowed in grief and turned his face to the sky after viewing a dead teenage boy in a body bag, AFPTV footage showed.

"What did he do wrong? God, what did we do to deserve this?" he yelled.

- 'Horror movie' -

During the unprecedented October 7 attack, Hamas fighters broke through Gaza's militarised border into Israel, killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 240, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an air and ground campaign that the Hamas authorities who run Gaza say has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.

Guterres has warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.

The United Nations says 1.7 million people there are displaced and short of food, water and other essentials.

"The healthcare service is on its knees," Rob Holden, a World Health Organisation (WHO) senior emergency officer, told journalists in Geneva on a video-link from Gaza as explosions were heard in the background.

"It is like a horror movie."

On a bed at Khan Yunis's Nasser hospital, Amal Abu Dagga wept, her beige veil covered in blood.

"I don't even know what happened to my children," she said. Another relative, Jamil Abu Dagga, told AFP the family had been at home when the bombs started falling.

In Israel, sirens warning of potential missiles sounded in several communities near Gaza, and authorities said they were restarting security measures in the area, including closing schools.

A rocket strike destroyed a van in one Israeli community near Gaza.

- 'Evacuation zones' -

Mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt were "ongoing", said a source briefed on the talks.

During the seven-day truce, Hamas freed 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, and more aid entered Gaza.

Twenty-five other hostages, mostly Thais, were also freed in separate arrangements.

On Thursday Blinken, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials, called for the truce to be extended, and warned any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.

The Israeli military published a map of "evacuation zones" in the Gaza Strip that it said would enable residents to "evacuate from specific places for their safety if required".

Residents in various areas of Gaza were sent SMS warnings on Friday.

Israeli forces "will begin a crushing military attack on your area of residence with the aim of eliminating the terrorist organisation Hamas," the warnings said.

"Stay away from all military activity of every kind."

- Children held hostage -

On Thursday, eight Israeli hostages, some holding dual nationality, were released in the seventh round of exchanges under the truce.

The country's prison service later said another 30 Palestinian prisoners -- 23 minors and seven women -- had been freed.

Hamas said it had also offered to hand over the bodies of a mother and her two sons -- one of them a baby -- in talks to extend the now-expired truce.

Israeli officials refused to comment on what they called Hamas "propaganda".

Shiri Bibas, her 10-month-old son Kfir and his four-year-old brother Ariel, along with their father Yarden, have become emblematic of the October 7 attacks.

Hezbollah meanwhile claimed its first attacks on Israel since the truce ended.

burs-dc-rlp/kir

M.Hug--NZN