The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) started at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday to conduct dozens of extensive airstrikes specifically on mid-level Hamas commanders in Gaza and some senior Hamas political officials, but did not target senior Hamas military commanders like Mohammed Sinwar, who might be holding Israeli hostages nearby.
The strikes ended a nearly two-month ceasefire with Hamas since January 19 after the sides had failed for nearly three weeks to bridge disagreements about moving from phase one of hostage negotiations to phase two.
The air force struck around 80 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in approximately 10 minutes from 2:10-2:20 a.m. on Tuesday.
In fact, most of the targets were hit in the first two minutes.
Throughout the day there were other waves of attacks.
IDF sources said this stage of the operation is still unfolding gradually in terms of how much or how little the military escalates either with more airstrikes or different options for a ground invasion.
Part of the purpose of the operation was to prevent Hamas from rehabilitating its fuller-scale military capabilities and structure as well as to block future potential Hamas plans to penetrate into Israel.
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, IDF Arabic Spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee sent out a message to Gaza residents to move farther into Gaza from the border with Israel to avoid being attacked as part of the renewed hostilities.
The red zone defined as a combat zone by the IDF wraps around all of Gaza from north to south seeming to cover between one-third to one-half of the Strip’s area, including Beit Hanun, Harvat, Hazaa, and Abasan.
More specifically, the IDF said civilians should move to the western parts of Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south.
No more specific instructions were given in central Gaza.
The IDF has to date avoided striking portions of central Gaza more carefully than other parts of Gaza. At different points in the war, there have been reports of hostages being held in some of the areas not being struck as hard.
The air force attacks are also designed to degrade Hamas’s renewed military capabilities after it has been leaked that it returned to a force of 25,000 and PIJ returned to a force of 5,000, with both groups also rebuilding military defensive positions throughout Gaza.
The IDF will broaden the operation, including into a returned land invasion as needed, but it is notable that no ground invasion has started yet, which is different from how sources were projecting a return to war under a new, more aggressive IDF chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, at least until this past weekend.
It is also noteworthy that there has been no mass reservist call-up as would be necessary in the event of any massive ground invasion versus limited penetrations.
In other words, the military is observing to see if Hamas will make its negotiating position regarding leaving Gaza and the hostages more flexible, though all signs in the early hours of the attack were that the Gazan terror group would hold its ground.
Naval involvement
The navy was also involved in aspects of the latest attacks on Hamas.
Though Hamas military chief Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of now-deceased former leader Yahya Sinwar, was not a target of the operation, at least four other senior Hamas officials were killed, and possibly at least two more.
It is possible that all six are dead, but Hamas sometimes spreads misinformation for a variety of strategic reasons, so the IDF does not confirm deaths of its senior officials until it obtains its own independent evidence (and even then there have been a few cases where the IDF wrongly announced having killed a Hamas official.)
The four were Issam al-Da’alis, who has served as Hamas’s political Gazan prime minister; Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the director-general of Hamas’s Interior Ministry and related terror forces; Bahjat Abu Sultan, operational chief of Hamas’s internal security apparatus; and Hamas justice minister Ahmed Omar al-Hatta.
Hamas also said senior officials Muhammad al-Jamasi and Yasir Herev were killed in IDF strikes, though the military has not yet confirmed those deaths.
Da’alis was the most senior of the officials, but the most critical officials for Hamas at this stage are its military chief Sinwar, one of the few remaining central planners of the October 7 invasion, and Khalil al-Haya, who was Yahya Sinwar’s political deputy and has been the lead Hamas negotiator on the hostages issue.
Also, IDF sources said that Sinwar could become a target, though it was unclear how the IDF would accomplish that if he is surrounded by hostage-human shields.
The IDF said it has strong intelligence for avoiding mistakenly striking hostages, but recognized that this intelligence is not perfect and that it has made mistakes on this issue during the war.
Early Tuesday morning, The Jerusalem Post had already confirmed that even as the IDF has returned to a military operation in Gaza, and potentially a return to a wider invasion, it still will not attack areas of Gaza where hostages are being held.
Defense sources would not get into which Hamas officials might or might not be holding hostages as human shields at this moment, as Yahya Sinwar did for much of the war, but the rule of not attacking areas where hostages are being held, which IDF officials have publicly confirmed for the entire war until now, has no exceptions.
Further, the military will also not target areas where there is potential doubt about hostages being nearby.
It is also worth noting that there are only 22-24 living hostages at this point, versus potentially a couple hundred at the start of the war.
Hamas reported that over 400 Gazans had already been killed and 600 wounded though there was no way to verify the numbers or distinguish between terrorists and civilians.
IDF unsure on number of casualties
IDF sources told the Post that though they do not yet know what the real numbers are regarding how many Palestinian civilians have been killed or wounded during the attacks as opposed to Hamas terrorists, it is fair to assume that Hamas is exaggerating the numbers as it has in the past.
However, IDF sources did not indicate that the military would be rushing to clarify the issue, given that there is greater support and less pressure on Israel from the US than at any prior point in the war given that the Trump administration has replaced the Biden administration.
Increased IDF forces have taken defensive positions on all fronts, including increased deployment of aerial defense platforms.
The surprise attack was kept a secret even among most levels of the IDF to maximize the element of surprise.
However, the attack was coordinated with the US and appeared timed with the several days of aerial attacks by the US on the Yemeni Houthis to reduce their response against Israel to any new attacks on Hamas.
The IDF said it was aiming to achieve the war goals “as determined by the political echelon, including the release of all our hostages – living and dead.”
The IDF has been instructed to act “forcefully” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Prime Minister’s Office announced.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the PMO said.
Katz said Israel returned to fighting in Gaza in light of Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages.
“If Hamas does not release all the kidnapped, the gates of hell will open in Gaza, and Hamas’s murderers and rapists will meet the IDF with forces they have never known before. We will not stop fighting until all the kidnapped return home and all the war’s goals are achieved.”
The White House also sent threats to Hamas.
“Hamas, the Houthis, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. “All hell will break loose,”
As a result of the strikes, the Home Front Command has updated its security guidelines, and school was canceled in the Gaza border region Tuesday morning, though by the evening, the IDF said some schools could reopen on Wednesday if they had proper safe rooms.
Late Tuesday, Katz moved the yardstick for the end of the IDF’s renewal of hostilities against Hamas and for a new deal to become dependent on a return of all of the hostages and a removal of threat to Israel’s Gaza corridor residents.
Until now, Israel had said it was steady to extend the ceasefire for approximately another 50 days in exchange for 11 live hostages plus some deceased ones and the US had offered a ceasefire extension in return for five live hostages plus some deceased ones.
Hamas had dropped its demand for a complete IDF withdrawal before it released any more hostages, but was only offering to release one live hostage and four deceased hostages, all of whom have joint Israel-American citizenship.
But if Israel sticks to Katz’s benchmark, all of those interim deals would be off the table and would force an end game with Hamas of either returning all of the hostages for a limited-time ceasefire with no guarantee that the IDF would not renew hostilities or of Hamas agreeing to receive “immunity” if its leaders agreed to expulsion from Gaza.
On the other hand, Katz did not demand Hamas agree to expulsion before ending the current round of fighting, rather demanding returning a sense of safety to southern residents, a goal that is more vague.
Has Hamas rebuilt their military strength?
In recent days and weeks, there was increased evidence that Hamas had reestablished its 25,000 fighter military structure, even if using many minors, was rebuilding military defensive positions, and was considering seeking to penetrate Israel’s border again, even if in a limited fashion.
Katz even mentioned this threat earlier this week to some southern residents.
How Israel would judge if Hamas remained in Gaza, but was being less active about rushing to reestablish its military power is unclear.
Another possibility was that when Katz said “Hamas must understand that the rules of the game have changed” and that it must release all of the hostages or face “the opening of the gates of hell” – really he meant that if there is no full deal soon, the IDF will engage in a full invasion, but that after such a full invasion, various negotiating options might be back on the table.
US President Donald Trump has previously stated that Israel would have the full support of the US in all attacks against Hamas.
Trump also stated that “Hell will rain down” on both Hamas and the Houthis, and that Iran should be held responsible “and face dire consequences” for Houthi attacks.
Shir Perets and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.