US President Donald Trump gave Israel a “green light” to renew military operations against Hamas in Gaza, US media reported Tuesday, as the international community lamented the collapse of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

Trump made the decision after Hamas refused to release more hostages, an Israeli official was quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal.

Israel let the US know that it was resuming strikes on Gaza before carrying them out, the official added, echoing other reports that said the same.

At least 413 Palestinians were killed in the overnight strikes, including children, according to unverified figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. It said another 660 were wounded.

The IDF said Tuesday afternoon that it was hitting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets across the Gaza Strip. Targets hit included cells of terror operatives, rocket-launching positions, weapons, and other military infrastructure, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement. The weapons and infrastructure were to have been used by the terror groups in planned attacks on Israel, the military added.

Israel cited Hamas’s “repeated refusal” to release Israeli hostages as its reason for resuming strikes. The terror group has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the January 19 deal, which was supposed to enter its second phase at the beginning of this 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. Though Israel signed on to the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to negotiate its second phase, insisting that the war will not end until Hamas’s governing and military........

© The Times of Israel