JERUSALEM – Israel carried out deadly bombings in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as international calls grew louder for more protection for civilians and the renewal of an expired ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Israeli army said it had carried out more than 400 attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed on Friday, killing at least 240 people, according to the Hamas government.

Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced “missile attacks” on several Israeli cities and towns, including Tel Aviv, and Israel said two of its soldiers had died in fighting, the first since the end of the ceasefire.

An Israeli bomb attack near the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt killed at least seven people early Sunday, the Hamas-led government said.

Israeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday, killing at least 13 people, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply rebuked the rising number of civilians in Israel’s eight-week war, sparked by an unprecedented attack on October 7.

“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she told reporters at the U.N. climate talks in Dubai.

“Frankly, the level of civilian suffering and the images and videos from Gaza are devastating.”

According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza – more than two-thirds of the population – have been displaced by the war.

“I cannot find words strong enough to express our concern about what we are experiencing,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.

Fadel Naim, chief physician at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, said his mortuary received 30 bodies on Saturday, including seven children.

“The planes bombed our houses: three bombs, three houses destroyed,” Nemr al-Bel, 43, told AFP, adding that he had counted 10 dead in his family and “13 more are still under the rubble.”

People in the Gaza Strip are lacking food, water and other essential supplies, and many homes have been destroyed. UN agencies have declared a humanitarian disaster, although some aid trucks arrived on Saturday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel had ordered NGOs not to bring aid convoys from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing after the ceasefire expired.

But the charity said on Saturday that its Egyptian counterparts had managed to send a number of trucks.

Israel withdraws negotiators

According to Israeli authorities, Hamas militants breached Gaza’s militarized border with Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 Israelis and foreigners hostage.

In response, Israel pledged to eliminate Hamas and launched an air and ground campaign that killed more than 15,000 people, mostly civilians, say Hamas authorities, which rule Gaza.

A week-long ceasefire negotiated with help from Qatar and supported by Egypt and the United States led to the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

But this ceasefire failed as both sides blamed each other for violating its terms.

Israel said Hamas tried to fire a rocket before the end of the ceasefire and failed to provide a list of other hostages for release.

Israeli negotiators left Doha on Saturday after reaching an impasse in talks over a renewed cessation of hostilities.

According to the Israeli army, 137 hostages were still in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Saturday that new military measures were needed to “create the conditions that force (Hamas) to pay a heavy price, which is the release of hostages.”

On Saturday, Israeli hostages released from Gaza spoke out publicly for the first time, calling on their government to ensure the release of the remaining prisoners.

“The moral obligation of this government is to bring them home immediately and without hesitation,” said Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, who was released by Hamas in October ahead of the ceasefire agreement.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for “increased efforts for a permanent ceasefire” to release all hostages, allow more aid and ensure Israel’s security.

He contradicted Israel’s stated war aims and warned that if the “total destruction of Hamas” in Gaza was the goal, “the war will last ten years.”

“TOTAL VICTORY”

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue “until we achieve all of its objectives,” including eliminating the Islamist movement.

“Our soldiers have been preparing for total victory against Hamas during the days of the ceasefire,” he said on Saturday in Tel Aviv at his first news conference since fighting resumed.

“There is no other way to win but to continue the ground campaign,” Netanyahu told reporters, stressing that this would be done in “respect for international law.”

Israel’s air, sea and ground forces have attacked more than 400 targets in Gaza since the end of the ceasefire, the army said on Saturday.

The figure is roughly the same as the daily average number of attacks before the break, according to previously released military figures.

According to the military, warplanes hit “more than 50 targets in a large-scale attack in the Khan Yunis area” in the southern Gaza Strip.

Separately, members of an Israeli armored brigade “eliminated terrorist groups and directed fire at terrorist targets in the north of the Gaza Strip,” the military said.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said troops shot a Palestinian at a checkpoint near the city of Nablus after he “pulled out a knife and advanced toward them.”

Syria said Israel carried out airstrikes near Damascus on Saturday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard accused Israel of killing two of its members in Syria who were said to be on an “advisory mission.”