TEL AVIV, December 1. /TASS/. The Palestinian radical movement Hamas failed to deliver on its promise to release more hostages as part of an extended truce as it fired rockets at Israel, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

"The Hamas terror organization reneged on the deal to free all women held as hostages and launched rockets at Israeli citizens," the Israeli PM’s office said in a statement.

"With the resumption of fighting we emphasize: The Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war - to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel," the statement reads.

Earlier on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the operational pause, and fired toward Israeli territory, which prompted the Israeli military to resume combat in the Gaza Strip. Prior to that, the IDF reported twice that sirens had sounded in localities adjacent to the Palestinian enclave and that it had intercepted at least one rocket fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory. Later on, the Israeli army said its fighter jets were striking Hamas targets there.

On November 22, Hamas announced that it had reached, with assistance from mediators Egypt and Qatar, an agreement with Israel for a four-day humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The agreement, which came into force on November 24, called for the release of 50 women, children and teenagers under the age of 19 held in the Hamas-controlled enclave in exchange for 150 women, children and teenagers under the age of 19 currently held in Israeli prisons. The truce was extended twice, on November 27 and on November 30.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total siege of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.