Fires light up Khan Younis sky as hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike

Fires lit up across Khan Younis in Palestine in the early hours of Tuesday, 18 March, as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 330 Palestinians across Gaza in the deadliest wave of attacks since a ceasefire deal was reached in January, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the airstrikes after weeks of unsuccessful attempts to negotiate an extension of the ceasefire deal reached on 19 January.

The Israeli military said in a statement: “This preemptive offensive will continue as long as necessary, and will expand beyond air strikes.”

Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said in a statement that “Netanyahu’s decision to resume war is a decision to sacrifice the occupation’s prisoners and impose a death sentence on them”.