Hamas fires rockets at Israel for first time since truce collapses as toll mounts in Gaza

By Dana Karni, Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder, Jo Shelley and Mahmoud Atef, CNN

(CNN) — Hamas fired rockets at Israel from Gaza Thursday, the militant group’s first response to Israel’s renewed offensive in the Strip that shattered a fragile two-month ceasefire.

Israel resumed its offensive on Gaza on Tuesday, first bombarding the Strip with airstrikes before launching a ground offensive a day later. More than 500 people, including 200 children, have been killed since the new offensive began, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Hamas fired three projectiles at central Israel, the Israeli military said. One was intercepted and two “fell into an open area,” with no casualties reported.

Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed it had launched an attack, saying it had “bombed the city of Tel Aviv deep inside the occupied territories with a barrage of M90 rockets” in retaliation for Israel’s attacks.

Israel also came under fire overnight from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Iran-back militia said it fired a ballistic missile at Israel in response to Israel’s renewed war in Gaza – the second it has fired since the ceasefire collapsed. Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile.

Israel blames the new fighting on Hamas for refusing to accept revised ceasefire terms. Hamas, in turn, has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unilaterally upending the truce and putting hostages “at risk of an unknown fate.”

Netanyahu faced fury from protesters in Jerusalem on Wednesday as thousands gathered outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to oppose the renewed fighting.

Protesters have accused Netanyahu of restarting the war in order to solidify his governing coalition, which has long threatened to collapse due to divisions over the war in Gaza.

Swiftly after Tuesday’s intense airstrikes, far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he would be returning to Netanyahu’s coalition. He had quit the government in January as Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Hamas.

At a National Security Ministry meeting on Thursday, Ben-Gvir said he was “happy to return after two months of respite.”

Ben-Gvir’s return to government will come as a boon to Netanyahu, who has to pass Israel’s next budget before a March 31 deadline or face fresh elections.

Israel continued to pound Gaza – killing at least 85 people since the early hours of Thursday, according to Palestinian officials – after it announced “targeted ground activities” on Wednesday.

Gaza’s health ministry said the toll was likely to rise with many people buried under rubble.

The Israeli military said it had retaken the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land that splits Gaza in half, dividing the central Gaza City and northern areas from the southern parts of the Strip that borders Egypt.

Israel launches more ground offensives

On Thursday, The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had launched another two ground offensives in Gaza, in the southern city of Rafah and in the north of the strip.

It said the operation in Rafah, at al-Shaboura refugee camp, had dismantled several “terrorist” infrastructure sites, while its action in the north took place along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia.

The ground operation in the north was preceded by Israeli strikes on the city of Beit Lahia the same morning, according to the IDF, which said it had targeted Hamas “infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch sites” there.

The Gaza Civil Defense said more than 50 people were killed in the strikes in Beit Lahia. One of the strikes targeted the home of the Abu Nasr family in the Al-Salatin neighborhood, killing 15 people, it added.

A resident of Beit Lahia, Mufida Abu Nasr, told CNN that that the strikes began in the early hours of Thursday morning as she was preparing suhoor, the pre-dawn meal Muslims consume before fasting during Ramadan.

“My children began to scream, and I was also terrified because I lost my son just 40 days ago; he was martyred,” she said. “When we went outside, we found that our relatives and neighbors had all been martyred.”

CNN’s Lauren Izso contributed to this story

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