Ceasefire shatters as Israel pounds Gaza with wave of deadly strikes

GAZA — At least 330 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza overnight, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

“A number of victims are still under the rubble, and efforts are underway to recover them,” it said.

The Israeli military said it was carrying out “extensive” strikes after talks to extend the ceasefire failed — it’s the biggest wave of strikes since 19 January, when the ceasefire began.

More than 440 people have been wounded, some very seriously, as rescue workers search for victims believed to be under the rubble, the ministry said earlier.

Israel’s more than two-week-long blockade of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza has exacerbated suffering in the strip, Low said, adding that the new Israeli bombardment threatened to further restrict residents’ access to vital fuel and water.

“We know that fuel is in short supply,” Low said. “And so, it’s possible that in the coming days we will lose telecommunications, that hospitals will collapse, there will be no clean drinking water available, and food distributions will come to a halt.”

Gaza’s hospitals are “completely full” and struggling to treat wounded Palestinians flooding in following renewed Israeli strikes, the head of the enclave’s biggest hospital said.

“Our hospitals are unable to accommodate the increasing number of injured, as operating rooms are completely full, and the wounded are dying without finding a bed for treatment,” Muhammad Abu Salmiya, of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said in a post on X.

He said the attack had dealt a blow to “an exhausted healthcare system suffering from a shortage of medications and a severe lack of medical equipment.”

A doctor at another hospital previously told CNN she had personally pronounced between 15 to 20 people dead in scenes that were “nothing close to anything I’ve experienced before” and that the majority of patients she had seen were children.

China is “highly concerned” about the resumption of widespread and deadly Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and called for a return to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

“China is highly concerned about the current Israel-Palestine situation,” Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told a regular press briefing.

She said Beijing “hopes that all parties will earnestly promote the continued and effective implementation of the ceasefire agreement, avoid taking any actions that could lead to an escalation of the situation, and prevent a larger-scale humanitarian disaster.”

Israel’s return to war in Gaza will inevitably worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, a leading humanitarian organization warned on Tuesday.

Shaina Low, a communications adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said her colleagues in Gaza were woken up by “intensive bombing” from Israeli attacks that continued until dawn.

“People, including our staff, are, of course, in shock. They are very stressed out. They are very worried about what is to come,” Low told CNN’s Rosemary Church from Jordan’s capital Amman.

About half of the NRC’s Palestinian staff had returned to northern Gaza to see their families and check on their homes since the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect two months ago, Low said.

A statement from Israeli hostages’ families accused the Israeli government of choosing to “give up” hostages in Gaza by launching new strikes.

“The greatest fear of the families, the kidnapped, and the citizens of Israel has come true,” says a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“The Israeli government chose to give up the hostages.”

The statement expresses shock and anger at what it calls the “deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones”.

The group has issued an “emergency call”, saying they are heading to Jerusalem to protest, as they say the “hostages are in grave danger”.

It says Israel and Hamas “must return to the ceasefire” and calls on US President Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the war, to “continue to act as he has declared and acted so far”.

Israel has said 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with up to 24 believed to be alive. — Agencies