Fighting continues in Gaza as pause in fighting delayed until Friday

Fighting continued in Gaza on Thursday, as a proposed pause in fighting and the release of hostages were delayed for another 24 hours.

Heavy sounds of gunfire and columns of black smoke could be seen rising above northern Gaza’s war zone early Thursday morning.

The Israeli military said it had intensified attacks as it launched 300 air strikes in the past day and sounded sirens warning of cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups.

Palestinian media reported Israeli strikes in the northern areas as well as in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel has told residents of the north to seek shelter.

“The negotiations on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in a statement overnight. “The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”

The cessation of hostilities is meant to be accompanied by the release of 50 women and children hostages held by the Hamas fighters who raided Israel on Oct. 7, in exchange for 150 Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails.

Both sides have said they will return to fighting once the truce ends.

“We are not ending the war. We will continue until we are victorious,” the chief of the Israeli general staff, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, told commanders in a video released by the military on Thursday.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 14,000 people in the occupied territory have been killed by Israeli air raids, around 40% of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.