The Biden administration has placed blame for the end of the temporary ceasefire on Hamas as it demands Israel do a better job of preventing civilian casualties in Gaza.
Before the truce's expiration Friday morning, Hamas not only failed to produce a list of hostages it would release the coming day, as required under the terms of the agreement, but it also fired rockets toward Israel and a day earlier carried out a terrorist attack that killed three people in Jerusalem. Israeli leaders warned that the military would be prepared to restart its operations in Gaza once the ceasefire concluded, and it did.
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"It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. "In fact, even before the pause came to an end, it committed an atrocious terrorist attack in Jerusalem, killing three people, wounding others, including Americans. It began firing rockets before the pause had ended. And as I said, it reneged on commitments it made in terms of releasing certain hostages."
During Israel's initial ground invasion of Gaza, Israeli forces effectively invaded the enclave and bisected it, with a majority of their operations coming north of that divide. Israel also urged more than a million Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south. The instruction, designed to push civilians out of their anticipated battlefield, raised international fears that Israel was breaking international laws regarding collective punishment.
Israel, as it restarts its military operation, will now focus on the southern part of the Gaza Strip, even though that area is now even more densely populated than before. Gazan officials, controlled by Hamas, reported that more than 180 people had been killed and at least 580 wounded in Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired.
The Israel Defense Forces released a map on Friday showing Gaza divided up into hundreds of numbered districts to be used in the “next stage of the war" to show communities that need to evacuate. They said it was published in an attempt to ensure civilians are not harmed during upcoming military operations.
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U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that Israel needs to prevent civilians.
"So first, on the civilian protection and humanitarian assistance piece of this, as I said, that is absolutely imperative. And we saw Israel take steps immediately today to start to get information to people about where safe areas are, how they can get out of harm’s way," Blinken added. "I saw the plans that Israel has in a multiplicity of ways to do everything possible to protect civilians, including making sure that they have the information they need and there are ways to accommodate them. And this is going to be very important going forward."