section_path: End of the ceasefire
section_name: End of the ceasefire
paragraph_text: End of the ceasefire
  
  On the early morning of 18 March 2025, during Ramadan, Israel conducted a surprise offensive of "extensive" airstrikes on Gaza, thereby shattering the almost two-month truce. Israeli forces acknowledged that they were "conducting extensive strikes", and separately stated that their attack "plan was kept in closed circles in the IDF to create an element of surprise and deception." The airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's ministry of health.
  
  Later on 18 March, Israel Katz, the Israeli Minister of Defense, commented: "Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on the evening of 18 March that Israel has "resumed combat in full force" against Hamas in Gaza, and that the 18 March strikes were "just the beginning". A US National Security Council spokesman blamed Hamas for the collapse of the ceasefire, arguing that they "could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war."
  
  Israeli journalist Barak Ravid argued that while journalists described the resumption of airstrikes as being a result of a "collapse", the ceasefire was deliberately collapsed by the Israeli government itself.