Many women and children among more than 200 Palestinians killed in Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

       Hamas says Israel carried out a “treacherous” attack on besieged and defenceless civilians in order to overturn the Gaza ceasefire deal. Palestinian Islamic Jihad accuses Israel of “deliberately sabotaging” the ceasefire, which had been in place since January 19.

       Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire.

       Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 48,577 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 112,041 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. Gaza’s Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.

       Israeli official claims attacks on Gaza ‘preemptive’, provides no evidence: Report

       An unnamed Israeli official has told US broadcaster CNN that the renewed attack on Gaza was a “preemptive” strike targeting Hamas’s “readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

       The air strikes targeted “mid-ranking military commanders, leadership officials and terrorist infrastructure”, according to the official.

       Israel’s assault will continue “as long as necessary and will expand beyond air strikes,” the official said, declining to provide any evidence regarding the claims made against Hamas.

       “We cannot elaborate further, so as not to hand out information to the enemy,” they said.

       Hamas calls for global protest against Israel

       The Palestinian group has called on people of Arab and Islamic nations, and the “free people of the world”, to take to the streets in protest over Israel’s devastating attack on Gaza, which has killed more than 200 people.

       Hamas called on people across the world to “raise their voice in rejection of the resumption of the Zionist war of extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip”.