The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed early Tuesday morning after roughly two months, as the IDF launched dozens of strikes throughout Gaza after receiving orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “act forcefully” against the terror group due to what the premier said was its repeated refusal to release Israeli hostages.

At least 232 Palestinians were killed, including children, according to unverified figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Netanyahu’s office said the decision to resume strikes shortly after midnight on Tuesday “followed Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US special envoy to the Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.”

Hamas has insisted on sticking with the original terms of the deal, which was supposed to enter its second phase at the beginning of the month. That phase envisioned Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza and agreeing to permanently end the war in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages. While Israel signed on to the deal, Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel will not end the war until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities have been destroyed.

Accordingly, Israel refused to even hold talks regarding the terms of phase two, which were supposed to begin on February 3.

Nonetheless, the ceasefire remained in place for roughly two and a half weeks after the conclusion of the first phase, as mediators worked to broker new terms for the truce’s extension.

Accepting Israel’s aversion to phase two, Witkoff presented a bridge proposal last week that would have seen phase one extended for several weeks during which five living hostages would be released. The US envoy said Sunday that Hamas’s response to the offer was a “non-starter” and warned of impending consequences if the terror group did not change its approach.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Israel consulted with the Trump administration before conducting the Tuesday strikes.

“As President Trump has made it clear: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran — all those who seek to terrorize, not just Israel, but the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she said.

“Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes separately told The Times of Israel.

US President Donald Trump was integral in the securing of the ceasefire, with his envoy Witkoff leaning hard on Netanyahu to accept the hostage deal in January after months of deadlock under the previous Biden administration. Trump has campaigned on ending wars worldwide but has quickly grown impatient with Hamas since entering office, repeatedly threatening the terror group with destruction if the hostages weren’t released.

Hamas issued a statement early Tuesday saying Netanyahu’s government’s decision to “overturn the ceasefire agreement” exposes the hostages “to an unknown fate.”

Hamas called on the mediators — the US, Qatar and Egypt — to hold Netanyahu fully responsible for breaking the ceasefire.

The terror group demanded Arab and Muslim countries to back “Palestinian resistance” aimed at “breaking the unjust blockade imposed on Gaza.” Hamas also urged the UN Security Council to urgently convene to issue a resolution obligating Israel to halt its “aggression.”

In its statement announcing the overnight strike, Netanyahu’s office said Israel moving forward will “act against Hamas with increasing military strength, adding that the operation is designed to achieve Israel’s war aims — the dismantlement of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and the return of all remaining 59 hostages.

Hostage families have long argued that those aims contradict each other and that a return to fighting will endanger their loved ones.

Hostage Omri Miran’s wife Lishay tweeted a broken heart emoji shortly after the strikes began. Former hostage Noa Argamani posted the same thing.

Polling over the past month has indicated that a majority of the Israeli public agrees with the hostage families and backs ending the war in exchange for the release of the hostages.

But those polls have also shown that a plurality of coalition voters back resuming the war. Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have also threatened to collapse the government if he ends the war before Hamas has been dismantled.

Israel wasn’t able to do this during the first 15-plus months of war but is emboldened by the new administration in Washington, which is less likely to criticize Jerusalem over potential civilian deaths or the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza, which the IDF has blocked entirely since the end of the first phase.

The IDF also has a new chief of staff in Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir who entered the post earlier this month pledging an unrelenting effort to dismantle Hamas.

Netanyahu also announced on Monday that he plans to fire Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, one of several security chiefs who regularly sparred with the premier over his handling of the war. The security establishment has argued that Israel should agree to the original terms of the ceasefire in order to secure the release of the remaining hostages before it is too late, insisting that Hamas can be dealt with at a later date.

The cabinet was initially slated to hold a vote on Bar’s dismissal on Tuesday, but that meeting had not been finalized as of Monday night and the resumption of fighting could well delay that process further.

Bar’s agency joined the IDF in conducting an extensive wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, which the army said targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the terror group’s politburo, and its infrastructure.

An Israeli military official briefing reporters said that the IDF conducted dozens of strikes using dozens of aircraft after Netanyahu signed off on the operation earlier Monday.

The strikes came after the IDF identified Hamas preparations to launch attacks on Israel along with its efforts to regroup and rearm, the Israeli military official said.

The military official said it intends to continue the airstrikes “as long as necessary,” and widen the surprise assault beyond an aerial campaign if it is ordered to.

The IDF is deployed and prepared on all fronts, including with heightened alert with its air defenses, the official added.

The plans for Tuesday’s operation had been kept secret until now for the IDF to have the element of surprise, the military official said.

Following an assessment, the IDF’s Home Front Command decided to postpone schools in Gaza border communities on Tuesday in addition to halting the train line to the southern city of Sderot.

Zamir managed the operation with Bar from the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system.

Reuters contributed to this report.