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Posted on Mar 18, 2025 / World

Terrorists say IDF airstrikes are 'death sentence' for hostages

The Israel Defense Forces carried out dozens of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on the night of March 18, The Times of Israel reports, citing a statement from the Israeli military. According to the IDF, the strikes targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the terrorist group's politburo and its infrastructure.

The IDF said it launched the large-scale strikes after noticing that Hamas terrorists were preparing attacks on Israel and were trying to regroup. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were carried out after Hamas refused to release the hostages. The IDF said it would continue the strikes "as long as necessary."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes on Hamas due to the lack of progress in talks to extend the truce and free the hostages. "From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military power," Netanyahu said in a statement. Israeli authorities said the operation is open-ended and is expected to expand.

According to Reuters, Israel has struck across the Gaza Strip, including the cities of Gaza, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah. The Israeli army's strikes hit the Al-Tabi'in school in Gaza City, where displaced people from the central Al-Daraj neighborhood were taking refuge, Reuters notes. Eyewitnesses told the agency that Israeli tanks shelled areas of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, causing local residents to flee their homes and head north to Khan Younis. One of the airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the Al-Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.

Israel consulted with the United States before striking Gaza. US President Donald Trump "gave Israel the green light to resume attacks on Hamas" after the terrorist group failed to return the hostages, an Israeli official told The Wall Street Journal. According to him, Israel warned the United States about the operation.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed that Israel consulted with the US administration before launching the strikes. "Hamas could have released the hostages to extend the ceasefire, but instead chose refusal and war," Hughes said.

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt, in turn, told Fox News that Trump would stand by "our friend and ally Israel." "As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, all those who seek to terrorize not only Israel but the United States of America, will pay a price. All hell will break loose," Leavitt said (quoted by CNN).

The Hamas terror group said Israel had cancelled a nearly two-month-old ceasefire and that the 59 hostages still in the Gaza Strip were facing an "uncertain fate," Reuters reported.

Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishk told CNN that Israel's airstrikes were a "death sentence" for the remaining hostages. "Netanyahu's decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the captives of the occupation and a death sentence for them," he said. Izzat al-Rishk added that Israel "will not achieve with war and destruction what it could not achieve through negotiations."

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