Israel’s military on Friday said it had resumed combat operations in Gaza minutes after a temporary truce with Hamas expired, blaming the militant group for breaking the cease-fire.<\/p>\n
“Hamas violated the operational pause, and in addition, fired toward Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip.”<\/p>\n
The truce had paused fighting that began on October 7 when Hamas broke through Gaza’s militarised border into Israel.<\/p>\n
During the truce brokered by Qatar, 80 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n
More than 20 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, were freed outside the scope of the agreement.<\/p>\n
According to the initial truce agreement, Israel agreed to halt its military operations in Gaza for four days and emphasised that it would release three Palestinian security prisoners for each of the 50 hostages freed from Gaza.<\/p>\n
Further, Hamas also released 17 Thais, one Philippines national and one dual Russian-Israeli national.<\/p>\n
However, on Tuesday, Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the temporary truce by two days, paving the way for the release of some 20 more people held hostage by the terror group.<\/p>\n