'We will not relent!' Netanyahu vows to 'destroy' Hamas as Israel renews Gaza strikes after botched hostages deal

By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-03-18 19:56:21 | Updated at 2025-03-20 15:59:44 1 day ago

Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a renewal of strikes on Gaza as he vowed to destroy Hamas.

The Israeli Prime Minister defended the resumption of airstrikes in the heavily bombarded enclave, saying that negotiations on restoring the ceasefire would continue "only under fire."

The move breaking the ceasefire was met with condemnation from charities and other countries in the region, including Turkey and the UAE.

Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardising efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting, but the group made no threat of retaliation.

$\u200bIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu$

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Reuters

$\u200bPalestinians make their way to flee their homes, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighborhoods$

Palestinians make their way to flee their homes, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighborhoods

Reuters

$\u200bIsraeli soldiers operate at a post on the Israeli side of the border between Israel and Gaza$

Israeli soldiers operate at a post on the Israeli side of the border between Israel and Gaza

Reuters

$\u200bPalestinians make their way to flee their homes$

Palestinians make their way to flee their homes

Reuters

Gaza hospitals already reeling from weeks of an aid blockade, medics and health authorities said, as ambulances ferried in hundreds of badly injured survivors.

Mohammad Qishta, a Medicins Sans Frontieres emergency doctor working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told reporters: "We received no less than 400 cases in less than two hours.

"There were some serious cases such as burns...third degree burns on the face, amputations, wounds on the head, wounds on the chest."

Netanyahu said military pressure on Hamas was a "critical condition" for securing the release of hostages held by the militant Islamist group, adding: "This is just the beginning."

$\u200bTom Fletcher addresses attendees via video link during the Security Council meeting$

Tom Fletcher addresses attendees via video link during the Security Council meeting

Reuters

$\u200bSoldiers sit on top of APC's, at the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel$

Soldiers sit on top of APC's, at the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel

Reuters

$\u200bChildren look on as people walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia,$

Children look on as people walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Jabalia,

Getty

UN Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher spoke at a Security Council briefing after Palestinian health authorities said Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing more than 400 people.

Fletcher said: "Overnight our worst fears materialized. Airstrikes resumed across the entire Gaza Strip. Unconfirmed reports of hundreds of people killed...once again, the people of Gaza are living in abject fear."

"Humanitarian workers remain on the ground...ready to provide life-saving support to survivors and to carry out humanitarian operations...We must be allowed to do so."

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