Ceasefire Ends as Israel Conducts Airstrikes on Gaza, Preempting Hamas Attack
Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”
Israel carried out massive overnight airstrikes on terror targets in Gaza as Hamas was preparing to launch a surprise attack on Israel.
“Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, … collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the strip,” Reuters reported. “Strikes in Gaza were reported in multiple locations.”
Extensive Israeli airstrikes occurring in the central Gaza Strip. The ceasefire appears to be over. pic.twitter.com/d2TfsOtxnv
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 18, 2025
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed its military operation days after Hamas rejected a U.S. ceasefire proposal and repeatedly attacked Israeli ground troops based in Gaza. “The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has ended as the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes (between Monday and Tuesday) on multiple targets throughout the Gaza Strip, supported by artillery fire from ground forces, with senior terrorist officials targeted,” the Israel Hayom newspaper reported Tuesday morning.
With Hamas mobilizing its terrorist forces, the IDF has issued new evacuation orders to Gaza communities along the Israeli border, Israeli media reports say. “The strikes come after the IDF says it identified Hamas preparations to launch attacks on Israel, along with its efforts to regroup and rearm,” The Times of Israel reported. “The IDF says it intends to continue the airstrikes “as long as necessary,” and widen the surprise assault beyond an aerial campaign if it is ordered to.”
In accordance with the political echelon, the IDF and ISA are currently conducting extensive strikes on terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/mYZ1WBPVPG
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 18, 2025
The overnight Israeli airstrikes eliminated several top Hamas terrorists, Palestinian sources admit. “Five senior Hamas members were allegedly killed in the IDF strikes on Gaza overnight, Israeli and Arab media reported on Tuesday, citing Palestinian reports,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Palestinian media sources and Sky News Arabia reported that five Hamas officials were among the casualties and named them as Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the director-general of Hamas’s Interior Ministry; Abu Obeidah Muhammad al-Jamasi and Issam al-Da’alis, members of Hamas’s political bureau; Ahmed Omar al-Hatta, a senior leader; and Bahjat Abu Sultan, responsible for Hamas’s internal security apparatus.”
BREAKING: At least ten senior Hamas officials have been eliminated in overnight Israeli airstrikes, according to Gazan sources.
Among them:
•Essam al-Da’alis – Head of Hamas’ government in Gaza.
•Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Abu Watfa – Undersecretary of Gaza’s Interior Ministry,… pic.twitter.com/AO4TAYeZDa— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) March 18, 2025
The Israeli news website YNET reported the details of the ongoing operation:
The IDF Spokesperson in Arabic Avichay Adraee on Tuesday morning issued a warning to Gaza residents in areas of Gaza including in the neighborhoods of Beit Hanoun, Khirbet Khaza’a, Abasan al-Kabira and al-Jedida to evacuate due to the IDF offensive.
The warning came hours after the cease-fire in Gaza ended late on Monday as the Air Force launched extensive strikes on the Gaza Strip in an operation dubbed ‘Strength and Sword’. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued by this office that he had instructed the military to take “strong action” against Hamas in Gaza in response to the group’s refusal to release hostages and rejection of all ceasefire proposals. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”
The IDF Arabic spokesman posted in his statement Tuesday morning that the IDF “has launched a powerful offensive against the terrorist organizations. These specific areas are considered dangerous combat zones. For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the known shelters in western Gaza City and Khan Younis. Continuing to remain in the designated areas endangers your lives and the lives of your family members.” (…)
At the same time, the IDF’s Home Front Command advised Israelis to prepare shelters across the country following recent air strikes in the Gaza Strip, the unit’s spokesperson Col. (res) Chilik Soffer told Ynet on Tuesday.
“In most areas, there’s no immediate threat, but every citizen must be ready to act at a moment’s notice — not just in border areas,” Soffer said. “I recommend preparing shelters everywhere. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
Earlier on Tuesday the IDF said that it would close the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt. Some 5 wounded and sick people had been crossing through Rafah daily, in accordance with the cease-fire agreement. Other border crossings into Gaza have been closed for the past two weeks.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in X. “The operational plan was presented by the IDF over the weekend and approved by the political leadership.”
Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.
The operational plan was presented by the IDF over the weekend and approved by the political leadership.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 18, 2025
Last week, Hamas rejected a proposal for a ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan (February 28 – March 29) presented by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Israel had accepted Witkoff’s proposal, agreeing to the extension of the ceasefire in return for 12 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others who were murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Gaza-based terrorist group continues to hold 59 hostages, including the remains of 35 murdered Israelis.
The IDF issues evacuation warnings to Palestinians residing on the edges of the Gaza Strip, as the military overnight launched a surprise aerial bombing campaign against Hamas.
In a post on X, the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of… pic.twitter.com/xtVw9vbsNb
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 18, 2025
Israel also eliminated the propaganda chief of the Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. “An Israeli airstrike killed the spokesperson of the armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad on Tuesday,” Reuters reported. “Naji Abu Saif, better known as Abu Hamza, was killed in an airstrike that targeted his house in central Gaza, the sources added.”
Naji Abu Saif, aka Abu Hamza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike today.
—
A blow for PIJ's propaganda apparatus in the war. Saif was effectively the main spokesperson for the group and played an active role in disseminating information.It's a big win for the Israelis. pic.twitter.com/IYZQ1dAtDx
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 18, 2025
IDF also hits terrorist targets in Syria, Lebanon
As fighting breaks out between Syria’s ruling Islamist forces and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Israel hit terrorist targets in both Syria and Lebanon.
“A short while ago, the IDF struck Hezbollah military sites in which Hezbollah terrorists and weapons were identified,” the Israeli military said in a press statement Monday night. “Terror activity at these sites poses a threat to the State of Israel and constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
JUST IN: Syrian sources report that the IDF attacked the headquarters of the 132nd Brigade of the former Assad army (in Daraa, southern Syria), and secondary explosions were observed at the site. Several civilians were injured. pic.twitter.com/KK1DqypHHj
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) March 17, 2025
Israeli armed forces continue to dismantle the military assets and capabilities of the ousted Assad regime, preventing it from falling into the hands of jihadists and other terrorist groups. “The IDF is currently striking military targets in southern Syria, including command centers and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian Regime, which they are attempting to make reusable,” the military disclosed. “The presence of military assets in southern Syria poses a threat to the State of Israel. The IDF will not allow the presence of military threats in southern Syria and will operate against it.”
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Comments
There in no reason for appeasement; only extermination will do. You can’t reason or make deals with Hamasholes.
Return Gaza to a desert.
Some people never learn and will never learn.
FAFO Hamas.
Stop warning civilians of an upcoming attack. It’s a STUPID idea.
Gazans = Hamas
It’s as silly as ‘roof knocks’ were in days past.
It appears that Hamas is back in the find out phase
Send all Islamofascists and Muslim terrorists to hell. And, make sure that their feckless, emasculated, stupid and evil European, leftist dhimmi and American Dhimmi-crat enablers, funders, whitewashers and allies pay a political price for their alliance with these goose-stepping, genocidal savages.
The ceasefire should never have occurred as it allowed Hamas to regroup, and rearm with the hundreds of terrorists Israel turned over to Hamas.
The “ceasefire” was over when the first IDF soldier was fired upon by Gazans this week. But Hamas supporters / Antisemites who hold Israel to different standards from any other nation – will of course say that the IDF broke the ceasefire. It’s just (and is Just) that with Hamas once again playing Lucy Van Pelt with a football (the hostages and corpses of murdered hostages) to the IDF’s Charlie Brown that Israel decided to acknowledge that Hamas broke the ceasefire.
Hamas can fire at Israeli soldiers and civilians non-stop during a ceasefire but it’s funny how it’s always Israel’s fault a ceasefire ends, isn’t it?
Hamas delenda est.
All the more do I look forward to sporting my new “Hug a Houthi” tee shirt. The reason? Their principled stand in “kicking genocidal Israel/U.S.A. in the B….! (belly)
No you don’t. You’d wear a mask to hide your identity like the rest of the cowardly anti-Semites. You guys don’t do principled.
there was never nor should there be a “cease fire” as holding hostages means the war never stops
the left has always been at war with civilized societies
Just War theory: Just war conduct is governed by the principle of proportionality. Combatants must make sure that the harm caused to civilians or civilian property is not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated by an attack on a legitimate military objective. Obviously, Israel/U.S.A., with the use of non-discriminatory bombs, has thrown this restraint to the four winds. And, certainly, the idea of proportionality, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” appears to have no weight in their minds as well. One still wonders what percentage of lost Israeli lives on Oct 7 were the result of the IDF command invoking the Hannibal directive. Israeli Apache hellfire missiles, not the small arms of Hamas, produced the scorched earth, parking lot appearance seen in photos. And the casualty numbers there incinerated?
proportionality is ANOTHER LEFTY CONSTRUCT
the exact way to make the war(s) stop is to inflict the most pain on the civilians so they will demand an end to the war
Actually, by grounding my argument for proportionality from the Old Testament, my criticism was not “ANOTHER LEFTY CONSTRUCT” rather a reproach based on a conservative judeo-christian perspective.
Israeli missiles did not rape, kidnap and murder innocent civilians on Oct 7 you ignorant clod. Israeli missile did not celebrate the murder of babies or parade abused hostages through violent mobs.
We are not speaking Japanese or German today because the Allies were smart enough to reject your fatuous reasoning, and instead waged total war on enemies, like Hamas, who were trying to extinguish civilization.
Bombs are discriminatory? Like every thing else, you have that back-asswords.
The problem with bombs is that they DO NOT discriminate – white, black, Jew, Muslim, soldier, civilian, soldier illegally (by The Laws of War) using civilians as shield, they will kill you regardless.
Now, unlike Hamas bombing businesses or buses full of civilians – or firing off crappy pipe missiles too inaccurate to hit any target smaller than a village at best – the IDF tries to target soldiers and leaders – and are FORCED to accept the inevitable civilian deaths caused by them (illegally) using civilians bodies as PR shields.
And in pursuit of that, the IDF spends a fortune in “smart” weapons to try to at least limit the number of civilians killed when Hamas et Alia (again, illegally) uses civilians as shields. Which made Joe Biden’s EO to stop supplying US-made “smart” munitions a Master Stroke of Idiocy if your stated reason is too many civilian deaths.
Your argument strikes me as pure bigotry. You’re holding only one side of a conflict to a high-minded standard, and not both. You can’t credibly criticize just Israel for violating a standard you don’t hold their foes, or indeed ANY other nation on Earth to.
In fact, The Laws of War directly address proportionality and reciprocity.
Under them, it is entirely legal – and in fact mandated – that if one side in a conflict initially violates its precepts, the other side take off the gloves and make war To The Knife. Any other response to War Crimes other than doing otherwise prohibited actions is effectively rewarding and incentivizing War Crimes, Just as – in a personal active shooter situation – sometimes you can and MUST shoot a person to enforce law.
Hamas is not a signatory to any treaty on the conduct of war. They violate the Geneva Conventions as a matter of policy. Until the Gazans remove Hamas as their government they are not entitled to protected status. The UNWRA allowing Hamas to use their sites to shield weapons and fighters likewise removes their protected status.
Just war theory is just a way to lose a war and feel good about yourself
Totally not like the precision of Hamas, who INTENDED to murder children on hundreds of occasions.
Proportionality: the goal of Hamas is the destruction of the state of Israel.
What should be a proportionate response to that goal?
Just wondering.
The destruction of Hamas is the proportionate response.
Actually the goal of must Muslims (57 countries and counting) is the destruction of Israel. Therefore.
If we followed that advice, we’d still be fighting WW2.
UIh- what’s ornage Harvey going to do now. He already, ( after 5 minutes of thought) drew a line in the sand.
As I’ve brillianlty and famously stated, almost every thing Orange Harvey blurts out can be summarized as follows. It gets hoots and hollers at a boogerpick MAGA Rally.It is not well though out. It is a subject matter on which he knows little( almost everyhing goes under that umbrella). He consulted nobody with knowledge of the subject matter. ( MAGA lackeys don’t count.)
Well, it looks like your President, Donald Trump, is giving the Israelis the support, weapons, and greenlight to kill every Hamas member. Unlike Joe Biden, who failed to build a half assed pier, supplied the terrorists, and told Israel not to defend themselves.
Also, perhaps you shouldn’t use a Jewish name as a slur on a thread where you are supporting the terrorists who want to kill all the Jews. But then, we already knew how you feel about Jews.
Also. You misspelled brilliantly. Mr. Subject Matter Expert. LAFFRIOT!
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA), also known as Shin Bet, said in a joint statement that the airstrikes eliminated Essam al-Da’alis, head of the Hamas government and “the most senior figure of authority in the Gaza Strip.”Took out the leader of Hamas., Also, the IDF and ISA also determined with “high probability” that Israeli strikes eliminated Mahmoud Marzouk Ahmed Abu-Watfa, the Minister of Internal Affairs in charge of Hamas’ Internal Security Forces; Bahajat Hassan Mohammed Abu-Sultan, who served as Head of Hamas’ Internal Security Forces; and Ahmed Amar Abdullah Alhata, who served as Hamas’ Minister of Justice.
Your cult must be full of fake laughter today. So brilliant.
So Hamas planned a surprise ending of the hudna and the Israelis found out about it? Better Israeli intel work this time as opposed to last October.
With that said, Gazans need to be removed from Gaza. Mr. Trump was right about this; the Gazans can’t be reformed. Move them to Syria, Iran, Turkey or Mauritania. Ship them out; the UN can then pay for new ‘temporary’ camps for the next hundred years. Then perhaps Israel and its neighbors can work out a peace.
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