Israel threatens Gaza’s residents with “complete destruction” if Hamas doesn’t hand over hostages

Tel Aviv — Israel’s defense minister threatened earlier this week to open “the gates of hell” in Gaza if Hamas refuses to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands, and Israel has been delivering. At least 58 people were killed in a third consecutive night of airstrikes up and down the Palestinian territory, bringing the death toll to an estimated 500 people since the ceasefire was shattered with Tuesday’s shock pre-dawn Israeli missile barrages, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health. 

More than a dozen people were killed overnight in a strike on just one house, the home of the Mubarak family in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. They had gathered to mourn an earlier death. Survivors whisked the bodies of the dead to a hospital by ambulance and horse cart. 

There were reports of fresh airstrikes early Thursday morning near Khan Younis and Rafah in the south of Gaza, near the border with Egypt. 

Israel resumes ground operations in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Tuesday that it had also resumed ground operations in central Gaza, again dividing the strip into north and south along the Netzarim corridor and blocking movement across the line. The IDF said it was also stationing a brigade of troops in the south, while airdropping fliers warning civilians to evacuate from areas around the entire Gaza border, which it warned would be turned back into combat zones.

“The IDF does not intend to harm you,” a post by the IDF spokesman for Arab Media said on X. “For your safety it is forbidden to approach IDF forces in the defensive zone and in any place where they are deployed.”

That message followed a severe threat from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to the citizens of Gaza.

“Residents of Gaza, this is a final warning,” he said in a video broadcast Wednesday afternoon. “If all the Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not eliminated from Gaza Israel will act with forces you have never known before. Take the advice of the U.S. President. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open up for you — including going to other places in the world for those who wish. The alternative is complete destruction and devastation.”

It appeared to be a threat of collective punishment against Gaza’s civilian population for the actions of Hamas, which has long been designated a terrorist organization by Israel and the U.S. 

Collective punishment is considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, though neither the U.S. nor Israel are signatories to that treaty.

U.S. strikes Houthis as Yemeni rebels fire missiles at Israel, U.S. ships

Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza has drawn fierce condemnation from most of the country’s Arab neighbors, and renewed efforts by Houthi militants in Yemen to target Israel and ships in the Red Sea with missiles. 

The Houthis claimed Thursday that they had fired a “hypersonic ballistic missile” at Israel before dawn – the second claimed launch in three days. The group said it had attempted to hit Ben Gurion international airport south of Tel Aviv, and air raid alarms shattered the peace many Israelis had grown accustomed to during two months of the ceasefire at 4 a.m. across the city and central Israel. 

“A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli Air Force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement minutes after an all-clear was given. No damage was reported.

The Houthis also claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group and its warships in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, but the U.S. military said there were no impacts. 

The U.S. has responded to the Houthis’ resumption of rocket launches with strikes against the group. Overnight, the U.S. struck targets in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, according to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV. At least nine women and children were wounded in a residential neighborhood, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run Yemeni health ministry claimed in a post on X.

U.S. strikes also hit targets in southern Yemen, in a province known to have Houthi military sites and weapons warehouses. 

President Trump had threatened on his Truth Social media platform that the group would “be completely annihilated.”

Thursday morning, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X that American “forces continue 24/7 operations against the Iran-backed Houthis,” sharing undated videos of U.S. fighter jets taking off from an aircraft carrier. 

At least 31 people have been killed in Yemen by the U.S. airstrikes, according to Yemeni media reports.

In a statement on Tuesday, CENTCOM said the Houthis had seized control of a World Food Program warehouse in the northern Yemeni city of Saada containing over 5,700,000 pounds of food and other humanitarian aid intended for civilians. 

“This is another example of the Houthi’s complete and reckless disregard for the people of Yemen and aggression toward the humanitarian operations that help those in need,” CENTCOM said. “The Houthis continue to violate international humanitarian law, as well as put aid workers and the Yemini people at risk. The Houthis care nothing for the Yemeni people.”

Editor’s note: This article previously cited a leaflet dropped by Israeli forces in Gaza, but CBS News understands that leaflet was dropped in January, not this week. The paragraph referencing the leaflet has been removed.

Tucker Reals

contributed to this report.