Israel consulted with the United States before launching massive air raids on the Gaza Strip overnight.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said late on Monday that the Israeli government had informed the US administration of the impending assault.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 items

end of list

The wave of bombing, which killed at least 404 people according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, has shattered the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt and implemented in January.

“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” Leavitt told Fox News.

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

Hamas said it views the Israeli attacks as a unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire.

Advertisement

‘No second stage’

Last month, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Israel had informed the US that it was not committed to the ceasefire.

According to the newspaper, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer told Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff: “Israel is not committed to the three-stage plan … even if it signed it.”

“Netanyahu’s plan, as Dermer presented it to Witkoff, is as follows: release all the remaining hostages in one big, single stage. Hamas will receive prisoners in return,” Haaretz said.

Should that demand not be met, the Israeli prime minister would resort to Plan B: a “return to intense warfare”, it continued, adding that “as far as Netanyahu is concerned, there is no second stage” of the ceasefire deal.

Witkoff recently warned that Hamas must release living captives immediately “or pay a severe price”.

Following the news from the US that it had been consulted, Hamas condemned Washington in a statement issued on Tuesday, accusing it of “direct partnership in the war of extermination against our people”.

The armed Palestinian group declared that the “confession … exposes the falsity of [the US] claims about the keenness to calm [things] down,” and called on the “international community … to take urgent action to hold the occupation and those who support it accountable for these crimes against humanity”.

Advertisement