Israel tells civilians to leave parts of Gaza as fighting resumes

FIGHTING has resumed in Gaza after the seven-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas expired.

The Israeli military has dropped leaflets warning residents in parts of southern Gaza to flee for their safety as bombing resumes.

Both sides have blamed each other for the violence restarting after a week in which more than 100 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says dozens of people were killed on Friday morning.

Rockets have also been fired into southern Israel from Gaza.

Earlier, the US warned Israel that the "massive loss of civilian life" seen in northern Gaza should not be repeated in the south.

Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October killed 1,200 people with around 240 others taken hostage.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,800 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign, including about 6,000 children.

“With the resumption of fighting we emphasize: The Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war – to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Hamas said Israel bore responsibility for the end of the truce, for rejecting terms to free more hostages and extend it.

“What Israel did not achieve during the fifty days before the truce, it will not achieve by continuing its aggression after the truce,” Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on the group’s website.