Israeli strikes kill over 400 in Gaza, ceasefire on brink

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Mar 18 (Reuters): Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.

Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas each accused the other of breaching the truce, which had broadly held since January, offering respite from war for the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza, where most buildings have been reduced to rubble.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension during faltering talks.

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

The strikes hit houses and tent encampments from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, and Israeli tanks shelled from across the border line, witnesses said. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 404 people had been killed in one of the biggest single-day tolls since the war erupted.

"It was a night of hell. It felt like the first days of the war," said Rabiha Jamal, 65, a mother of five from Gaza City.

"We were preparing to have something to eat before starting a new day of fasting when the building shook and explosions began. We thought it was over but war is back," she told Reuters via a chat app.

Israel's sudden onslaught overwhelmed Gaza hospitals already reeling from weeks of an aid blockade, medics said, as ambulances ferried in hundreds of badly injured survivors.