Israel confirmed that an additional two senior Hamas members were killed Tuesday during a series of precision airstrikes in Gaza that also annihilated four other leaders and a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The announcement came as Israeli forces and tanks reentered central Gaza to begin "targeted ground activities."
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said on Wednesday that the large-scale military strikes—the first of their kind since a ceasefire went into effect two months ago—killed Yasser Mohammed Harb Musa, a member of Hamas’s politburo, and Mohammed Jamasi, who ran the terror group’s emergency committee.
Musa, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement, "handled the advancement and guidance of terror attacks against the State of Israel." He was a close associate of slain former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israeli forces took out in Rafah last October.
Jamasi, meanwhile, "held key positions in the political bureau and the leadership of the movement and as part of his role in the war, he coordinated a significant portion of the Hamas regime's government activity in the Gaza Strip, including the guidance of terror attacks against the State of Israel," according to the IDF and Shin Bet.
Shortly after that announcement, the IDF confirmed in a separate statement that its troops "began targeted ground activities in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone and create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza."
The activities, which target the Netzarim Corridor, mark the first time Israeli tanks have advanced in the area since the start of a tenuous ceasefire, ushering in a new phase in Israel's war to decimate Hamas and further shattering the deal that has stalled for weeks as Hamas rejected U.S. proposals to extend it. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, less than half of whom are believed to be alive.
Netanyahu, in a Tuesday address, said Israel’s offensive is just beginning, though he left the door open to further negotiations around a U.S.-led ceasefire deal.
"From now on, negotiations will only be led under fire," Netanyahu said after the first wave of strikes.
Hamas confirmed on the same day that four of its leaders were killed when Israel initiated the strikes across the Gaza Strip following consultations with the Trump administration, which has endorsed the Jewish state’s military campaign. The terror organization has not responded militarily to Israel's assault but issued warnings that remaining hostages will face an "unknown fate" amid the revamped war effort.
Israel, for its part, has threatened Hamas that it will annex territory in Gaza if the terror group harms Israeli hostages, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal.
Reuven Azar, Israel’s ambassador to India, said on Wednesday that peace is immediately possible if Hamas returns to the bargaining table and agrees to extend the ceasefire, as proposed by the Trump administration and Arab mediators.
"There can be a peace today, if Hamas agrees and abides by the conditions set out for it," Azar said in an interview with NDTV, echoing comments from other Israeli leaders and American officials. "Hamas has rejected [the] proposals of the American mediator time and again. It simply refuses to release the hostages. There is no option left for Israel now, but to resort to military pressure."
The Trump administration sent a similar message after Tuesday’s bombardment. In a statement shared with the Washington Free Beacon, White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said, "Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire, but instead chose refusal and war."
Last week, Hamas rejected a U.S.-backed plan to extend the ceasefire’s first phase beyond Ramadan and Passover. Israel’s renewed military push is aimed, in part, at pressuring Hamas to accept the terms laid out by the Trump administration.
Hamas "is making a very bad bet that time is on its side," Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday. "It is not. Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes."