IDF Strikes 200 Terror Targets in North, South Gaza After Hamas Breaks Truce

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday that Israel had struck over 200 terror targets in both northern and southern Gaza after Hamas violated a seven-day truce just over an hour before it was set to expire.

In a statement, the IDF said:

Following Hamas’ violation of the operational pause, over the last few hours, ground, air and naval forces struck terror targets in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, including in Khan Yunis and Rafah.

The IDF struck areas booby-trapped with explosives, terror tunnel shafts, launch posts, and operational command centers designated by Hamas for use in the renewed fighting.

Hamas broke the truce, hours after the seventh and last group of released hostages released Israel, by launching rockets at Israeli communities near Gaza, most of which are still evacuated.

This picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip shows a rocket being fired from inside Gaza towards Israel, as battles resumed between the Israeli forces and Hamas militants, on December 1, 2023. A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas expired on December 1, with the Israeli army saying combat operations had resumed, accusing Hamas of violating the operational pause. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Israel, Hamas also thwarted a last-minute extension of the truce by refusing to release remaining female civilian hostages, whom Hamas considers potential soldiers.

Hamas also refused to comply with a demand by Israel and the United States that it allow the Red Cross to visit roughly 140 remaining hostages.

American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators had hoped to extend the pause into an eighth day, but to no avail. The U.S. also warned Israel against operating in southern Gaza without a comprehensive plan for taking account of Palestinian civilians. On Friday, the IDF published a detailed map in which it had divided the Gaza Strip into hundreds of sections with numbers. The IDF says that it will warn residents, by section number, of impending military action.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who warned Israel Thursday it did not have “credit” for a long fight to remove Hamas, was evidently satisfied with Israel’s new humanitarian effort.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.