Israel resumes combat operations against Hamas: live updates

After a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas expired, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are once again “out to destroy” Hamas, according to a spokesperson.

The Israeli military’s aim is to destroy the militant group “so they can never commit this crime in Israel again, and along the way, bring our people home,” IDF spokesperson Maj. Doron Spielman told CNN Friday, as Israeli forces resumed combat missions against Hamas in Gaza. 

Spielman said the military’s targets remain “Hamas strongholds, Hamas terrorists and where they shot the rocket launchers.” 

Sirens went off in Israel in the hour before the truce was due to expire Friday morning, warning of an incoming rocket which was intercepted. Sirens have continued in Israeli communities around Gaza since.

“Sleeping Israelis once again woke up to the sound of the red siren of Hamas rockets falling at us once again from Gaza,” Spielman told CNN, adding that “there have been multiple rockets” that were intercepted Friday.

A potential resumption of the truce is up to politicians, not the military, Spielman said.

“The political echelon can decide to take this in whatever direction that they want to, that is always an option for them. They have given us the order as the military that this truce has been violated,” he said. 

Asked about the IDF targeting civilian areas in Gaza, Spielman said: “We don’t want to see Gaza civilians die, but Hamas is operating directly from within those areas, and we have to ask ourselves what is the alternative?”

“If we do nothing, if we lay down our arms, we are just going to allow Hamas to carry out another massacre like October 7th. I think morally that is completely unconscionable,” he said.

Spielman also argued that Hamas was not targeting troops, “they were targeting directly toward civilians.”