Israel struck Hamas targets across Gaza overnight Tuesday, ending a two-month ceasefire after the collapse of negotiations for the release of additional hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist group, leaving hostage families fearful for their loved ones’ lives.

The airstrikes on Hamas targets in Khan Younis, Gaza City and Deir al-Balah, named Operation Strength and Sword by the IDF, were meant to “achieve the objectives of the war … including the release of all our hostages, the living and the deceased,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that “if Hamas does not free all the hostages, the gates of hell will be opened in Gaza and the Hamas murderers and rapists will meet the IDF with a force they did not know until today.”

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said that “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the cease-fire, but instead chose refusal and war.” 

Israel notified the Trump administration before carrying out the airstrikes, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.

“As President Trump has made it clear: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran — all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she said.

The IDF and Shin Bet – whose chief Netanyahu is trying to fire – took “strong action” that the Prime Minister’s Office said “follows Hamas’ repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators,” Qatar and Egypt.

The ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19 involved Hamas releasing 33 hostages, including the bodies of 12 Israelis, in exchange for over 1,700 terrorists, including mass murderers, Israeli military withdrawal from much of Gaza and allowing Palestinians to move from southern to northern Gaza. 

With 59 hostages remaining in Gaza – 21-24 thought to be living – Hamas rejected all proposals to continue the ceasefire through Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began at the end of February, and Passover, which ends on April 19. Witkoff proposed that Hamas release five living and 10 dead Israeli hostages, and Israel would lift its current blockade and free dozens of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas would only agree to release one living hostage — Israeli-American IDF soldier Edan Alexander — and the bodies of four dual nationals, and only on the condition that Israel would start talks on further phases of the ceasefire.

The deal’s second phase was meant to bring the war to a close, though its details were not negotiated in advance. Israel requires Hamas to leave power and Gaza to be demilitarized for the war to end, nonstarters for the terrorist group.

Hamas-affiliated authorities claimed over 250 Palestinians were killed in the strikes without stating how many were combatants. More reliable numbers were not available on Wednesday.

Qatar-based Hamas senior official Izzat al-Rishq said that the renewed fighting was a “death sentence” for the hostages.

The Hostages Families Forum expressed concerns that the renewed fighting put their loved ones held in Gaza at risk, saying that their “great fear … came true. The government of Israel chose to give up on the hostages. We are shocked, furious and anxious from the proactive disruption of the process to return our loved ones from terrible Hamas captivity.”

The families also called on President Donald Trump to “continue acting as he declared … to free all of the hostages.” 

The smaller Tikva Forum of Hostages’ Families expressed support for the renewed fighting, saying that “only massive military pressure, a complete blockade including cutting off electricity and water, and occupation of territories will lead to Hamas’ collapse, will cause them to beg for a ceasefire and a deal that will return all the hostages together, in one stage.”

The renewed airstrikes in Gaza are taking place days before the Knesset plans to begin voting on the 2025 state budget. 

Netanyahu’s 61-member parliamentary coalition has a one-seat majority, and it remains unclear whether he will have enough votes to pass the budget, in light of continuing debates related to the conscription of Haredim to the IDF. If the Knesset does not pass a budget by the end of this month, the law mandates an election be held 90 days later.

But Netanyahu may have the opportunity to expand his coalition in light of the war’s continuation in Gaza. When the government entered the ceasefire in January, then-National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir withdrew his Otzma Yehudit party from the coalition, saying he will only return if the fighting is renewed. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also threatened to leave the coalition if the ceasefire led to the end of the war.

An Otzma Yehudit spokesperson said that renewing the fighting in Gaza “is the right step, the moral and most justified one, in order to destroy the Hamas terror organization and bring back our hostages. We cannot accept the existence of Hamas and must demolish it.”

Ha’aretz reporter Amir Tibon, a resident of Kibbutz Nachal Oz, where some of the worst massacres of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks took place, wrote on X: “Netanyahu had a choice: To bring back [hostages] Omri Miran and David Cunio to their children, or to bring back Ben-Gvir to his government to pass a budget. And he chose Ben-Gvir.”