Within half an hour of the latest truce ending on Friday, Israeli fighter jets were bombing Gaza, and Hamas was firing salvos of rockets into Israel.
Although the Israel Defence Forces had been preparing for a resumption of their ground offensive if further truces could not be agreed, both sides are motivated to progress the release of hostages.
So why have the negotiations stalled and war resumed?
One of the IDF's objectives is to liberate hostages, and the truces have proven an effective way to achieve this objective.
However, the IDF also wants to destroy Hamas, and is determined to resume military operations if the hostage negotiations stall.
Hamas knows it is no match militarily for the IDF, but is using the hostages as leverage to ensure its survival through extended ceasefires.
The initial focus was on releasing Israeli women and children, with three Palestinian prisoners released for every hostage liberated.
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However, the next category of hostages will include young males and foreign nationals held, and Hamas will place a greater value on these hostages before considering their release.
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4:32
Israel's military has begun Phase 2 of its offensive
The IDF soldiers will probably be the most prized hostages held by Hamas, and although Hamas might drip-feed their release, they only need a handful of IDF hostages - plus maybe a couple of foreign nationals - to maintain a credible negotiation capability.
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Hamas once held an IDF soldier for five years and only agreed an exchange in return for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners - one of which was Yahya Sinwar, who is now the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
Image:Aftermath of explosions in Gaza Strip following the end of the ceasefire
Meanwhile, Israel appears primarily focused on destroying Hamas, and although any truce will be welcome if it liberates hostages, the IDF will not tolerate any prevarication by Hamas.
Although Israel has resumed its combat operations, the military objectives will likely remain unchanged: destroying Hamas and liberating all hostages.
The second phase of its ground offensive appears to be focused on southern Gaza, where the population density is higher.
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0:59
Israel launches strikes on Gaza as truce ends
The IDF admits the casualties will be greater during Phase 2 - for both the IDF and the Palestinian civilians.
Israel claims to have killed 5,000 Hamas fighters in the first phase of the war, but in total more than 15,000 Palestinians have lost their lives since the start of the conflict - and that ignores those bodies yet to be discovered in the rubble.
If Israel's military objective remains to destroy Hamas and they have killed 20% of the fighters to date, then by extrapolation the next phase of the conflict could result in another 60,000 Palestinian lives lost - not accounting for the increased risk due to the greater population density in the south of Gaza.
Image:Pressure is steadily growing on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war
Any such dramatic increase in the levels of civilian casualties or escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza will be of grave concern to the international community.
Even the US - Israel's closest ally - is using increasingly cautionary language and urging restraint. It will be very difficult for Israel to maintain international support for a prolonged offensive in pursuit of its military objectives.
Regardless, Israel is clearly not prepared to let Hamas seize the initiative.
Israel supports an extension to the truce in exchange for hostages, leaving Hamas to choose between negotiation or war.
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3:18
Fighting resumes in Gaza
Qatari mediators are continuing their efforts to negotiate a fresh agreement, and we should expect periodic pauses in the hostilities as fresh agreements are reached and more hostages are released.
However, these are increasingly frustrating times for Israel who, despite overwhelming military superiority and securing the release of more than 100 hostages, are fast losing the initiative in this conflict.
Despite mounting a determined and aggressive ground offensive into Gaza, Israel has not destroyed Hamas, has yet to free all hostages, and is facing increasing calls to end the war.
Despite the devastation, the conflict has done little to resolve the underlying issues that polarise opinions in the region.
However, from the horrors of war, the opportunities for a lasting peace emerge, but only with international commitment and leadership will lasting progress be made.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said 178 Palestinians have been killed since this morning as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
Most of those are children and women, the ministry said in its latest update on Friday. It added that 589 people have been injured.
The Guardian cannot verify these figures.
The International Monetary Fund has announced it will revise its economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa region due to the continuing Israel-Hamas war.
The conflict would have wide-ranging consequences for “both people and economies” in the region, although the extent of the impact remains “highly uncertain”, IMF staff wrote in a blog post on Friday.
A large-scale conflict would constitute a major economic challenge for the region.
The post also called on the international community to act to prevent a further escalation, Agence France-Presse reports.
In the event of a large-scale conflict, “what is certain is that forecasts for the most directly exposed economies will be downgraded and that policies to buffer economies against shocks and preserve stability will be critical”, the IMF post added.
It did not say if the revisions would be released ahead of its next outlook publication, which is due in January.
Syrian air defences repelled an Israeli rocket attack against targets in the vicinity of Damascus early on Saturday, Syrian state media reported, adding that defences shot down most of the missiles.
The report, citing a military source, said the attack came from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights.
It said there were only material damages, Reuters reported.
Israeli shelling killed three people in south Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, as the collapse of a Israel-Hamas truce prompted a resumption of hostilities at the frontier.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, later said two of those killed were its fighters. It also said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border in support Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The Israeli army said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and that air defences had intercepted two launches. The army also said it struck a “terrorist cell”.
Sirens warning of possible incoming rockets sounded in several towns in northern Israel, sending residents running for shelter.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that two people were killed by Israeli shelling in the Lebanese border town of Houla, and one person was killed in the village of Jebbayn.
It’s 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israel’s military pounded the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of a seven-day truce. Israel launched more than 200 strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, including in the densely populated south, where many civilians have fled. Khan Younis, which was previously attacked less heavily than the north of Gaza, was almost bombed from the air immediately after the truce broke down. Israel has signaled that it is preparing to launch a ground assault into southern Gaza in a significant escalation of the war.Gaza’s health ministry said 178 civilians had been killed since the ceasefire ended.
Israel’s military has set out its plan for the “next stage of the war”: dividing Gaza into dozens of numbered “evacuation areas”, a core part of the military’s plan to gradually take control of the southern part of the strip. Under the plan, people in certain numbered districts of Gaza will be told to evacuate before bombing begins, although how much time they will get is not clear. Leaflets were dropped in parts of Khan Younis, where Israel believes Hamas’s leadership is based, warning citizens to evacuate further south to Rafah.
Humanitarian groups said the Israeli warnings would be insufficient because civilians in Gaza were running out of places to evacuate to. Palestinians risked being forced completely out of the territory, they said. Homes in Khan Younis were among the targets struck on Friday hours after the truce expired, and residents were given little, if any, time to flee.
No humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza on Friday, including fuel, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces told organisations operating at the Rafah crossing that the entry of aid trucks is prohibited “until further notice”. A spokesperson for the crossing said the entrance of trucks carrying much-needed aid, fuel and cooking gas from Egypt into the Gaza Strip had stopped because of Israeli bombardment.
The resumption of hostilities came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to brush aside US calls to pursue a more restrained military campaign. Netanyahu said his country’s forces were now “charging forward” and that the plan was for a total military victory. In a difficult meeting on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinkenclashed with the Israeli cabinet and insisted the level of civilian casualties had to be reduced in any resumed assault and that Israel had to share its long-term objectives for Gaza with moderate Arab states.
The UN said it deeply regretted the resumption of deadly hostilities in the Gaza Strip, calling the situation “catastrophic”. The body also said it was concerned by suggestions Israel could seek to expand its military offensive inside the Palestinian territory. The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, urged efforts to be redoubled to try to bring about a ceasefire on humanitarian and human rights grounds.
Israel has said it will not renew visa for a top UN official who helps oversee humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a UN spokesperson said. Israel’s foreign ministry last month accused Lynn Hastings, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, of failing to be impartial and objective.
Rishi Sunak has described the breakdown of the truce as “deeply disappointing” and issued renewed calls for “sustained humanitarian pauses” in Gaza as he held talks with Israel’s president and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Jordan on the sidelines of the Cop28 summit on Friday.
Two people were killed during Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to reports, as the end of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas prompted a resumption of hostilities at the border. Hezbollah said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have blamed for what it called was a deliberate attack last month on a convoy that was trying to evacuate people out of Gaza City. In a report that cites several witnesses from the organisation, MSF said “all elements point to the responsibility of the Israeli army for this attack.”
Israel’s military was aware of Hamas’ plan to launch an attack on Israeli soil more than a year before the bloody 7 October terror attack, according to a New York Times report. The document was reportedly circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence officials, who dismissed the plan as being of a scale and ambition that was beyond Hamas’s capabilities.
The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior state department official said, in the first sign that the US is prepared to publicly distance itself from some of the Israeli government’s actions.
A protester with a Palestinian flag self-immolated on Friday outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, US, injuring a security guard who attempted to intervene, authorities said.
The UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, has said “hopes were dashed” in a matter of hours after the truce between Israel and Hamas came to an end on Friday morning.
In a statement, Griffiths said during seven days of the ceasefire, hostages were released, families were reunited, more patients received medical care, and the volume of aid into Gaza increased. But, he said:
Today, in a matter of hours, scores were reportedly killed and injured. Families were told to evacuate, again. Hopes were dashed.
Almost two months into the fighting, the children, women and men of Gaza are all terrified. They have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on. They live surrounded by disease, destruction and death.
He urged a humanitarian ceasefire to maintain aid deliveries into Gaza and to allow the remaining hostages to be released. “We need the fighting to stop” he said.
The past week offered us a glimpse of what can happen when the guns fall silent. The situation in Khan Younis today is a shocking reminder of what happens when they don’t.
A Democratic congressman says his home was vandalized on Thursday night by “people advocating for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza”.
Adam Smith, a US House member from Washington state, called the vandalism to his home in the city of Bellevue “sadly reflective of the coarsening of the political discourse in our country, and is completely unwarranted, unnecessary, and harmful to our political system”.
Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, has not joined calls from some in his party for a ceasefire and was part of a group that sent a letter to Joe Biden applauding the president’s support for Israel.
Smith said he and his staff have often met with groups across the political spectrum, including pro-Palestinian activists. And he said he was still willing to meet with those groups “in a productive and peaceful way”.
“The extremism on both the left and right side of our political spectrum is a threat to a healthy, functioning democracy and has been condoned for far too long,” Smith said in a statement.
The simple truth is that extremism on both sides is degrading to our political system and must be rooted out for our democracy to be able to persist.
Pramila Jayapal, also a Democratic House member from Washington state, wrote on X that vandalizing someone’s home “crosses the line”.
“As an activist before coming to Congress, as a member of Congress who’s been violently targeted at my home, I firmly believe everyone should be able to feel safe in their homes,” Jayapal said.
Let’s find smart, non-violent ways to air our differences & respect the boundaries of home & family.
US and Israeli officials believe that Hamas continues to hold several civilian women as hostages in Gaza, according to a report.
The women are believed to be in their 20s and 30s and many of them were kidnapped from the Nova music festival, CNN reported, citing sources.
The report says that Hamas has insisted during negotiations on Thursday and in the hours after fighting resumed that it did not have any more non-military female hostages to release. The militant group claimed some of the remaining women were considered part of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), it said.
IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari has said there are 17 women and children among the 136 hostages.
As we reported earlier, the White House has also cast doubt on Hamas claims to have run out of female and child hostages. National security spokesperson John Kirby, at a briefing on Friday, said:
We think it’s more than plausible that they have more women and children that do and should qualify for an exchange.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have said that “all elements” of an attack on one of its convoys while evacuating from Gaza City earlier this month “point to the Israeli military as responsible.”
Two people were killed when an MSF evacuation convoy came under fire in Gaza City on 18 November, in what the organisation said immediately appeared to be a deliberate attack.
In an earlier statement, MSF said the convoy of five cars, all clearly marked with MSF identification and composing of 137 people, including 65 children, was trying to evacuate its Palestinian staff members and their families to southern Gaza. It said that the evacuation convoy was not allowed to cross a checkpoint near Wadi Gaza, and that it was attacked as it returned to the MSF premises.
The organisation released a new statement on Friday saying that “two weeks later, after collecting the testimonies of MSF staff who were present in the convoy that day, all elements point to the responsibility of the Israeli army for this attack.”
It said it has requested a formal explanation from Israeli authorities and called for an independent investigation into the incident.
Israeli defence sources say they expect a southern campaign to take longer than the north, running into January or longer, although timescales in war can be hard to predict.
But while it may proceed gradually, and avoid a certain number of civilian casualties if the evacuations go ahead as planned, it will inevitably leave more and more people pushed south around Rafah.
“Where can people move to?” asked Jason Lee, Palestine country director for Save the Children.
Will they end up pushed next to the Mediterranean, and in the sea?
It raises the grim prospect of fighting running through December, perhaps punctuated by pauses to allow more hostage releases, and risks increasing tensions between Israel and the international community, in particular with the US.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Thursday that Israel must “minimise further casualties of innocent Palestinians” in future military operations and “avoid further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza”.
But it is hard to see how both goals can be achieved, even on Israel’s revised area-by-area strategy, given Israel’s overarching objective to eliminate Hamas as a military and political force in the Gaza Strip.
And for all the emphasis on civilian evacuations, Israel said it struck 200 targets on Friday, including in Khan Younis and Rafah. In practice, its new military strategy does not yet look much different.
A UN spokesperson has confirmed that Lynn Hastings will be replaced as the body’s official helping to oversee humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.
As we reported earlier, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Israeli authorities had informed the body that they would not renew Hastings’ visa.
He has since told Al Jazeera that she will be replaced, adding:
We need to make sure that there’s agreement and everybody is OK with the people that we send.
He added that Israel’s attacks against Hastings, who has been the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and the humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory for three years, were “unacceptable”.
A protester is in critical condition after setting themselves on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, US police have said.
Police believe the person, whom they did not identify, was carrying out “an act of extreme political protest”, police chief Darin Schierbaum said on Friday.
A security guard who attempted to intervene was also injured, authorities said.
Israel has said it will not renew visa for a top UN official who helps oversee humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a UN spokesperson said.
Lynn Hastings, a Canadian-born UN official, has served as the body’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory for nearly three years.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Friday:
We’ve been informed by the Israeli authorities that they would not renew the visa of Ms Hastings past the due date at some point later this month.
Israel’s foreign ministry last month accused Hastings in a social media post of failing to be impartial and objective.
“You’ve seen some very public attacks on Twitter against her which were utterly unacceptable,” Dujarric said, adding that personal attacks on UN staff “is unacceptable and puts people’s lives at risks”.
He stressed that the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has full confidence in Hastings.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said it is “beyond concerned” that no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza today, including fuel.
UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini warned of “very sad days ahead” for the people of Gaza in a social media post. He wrote:
The pause has come to an end. Israeli Forces resumed military operations, many will be displaced including seeking refuge in already crowded UNRWA shelters.
As we reported earlier, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has also said Israeli forces have been blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing.
It said Israel had informed all organizations operating at the crossing that the entry of aid trucks into Gaza “is prohibited, starting from today until further notice”.
A spokesperson for the Rafah border crossing earlier today said the entrance of trucks carrying much-needed aid, fuel and cooking gas from Egypt into the Gaza Strip has stopped because of the resumption of the Israeli bombardment.
The White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said Israel had blocked trucks from crossing into Gaza on Friday, but that it would now allow some aid to enter at the request of the US government.
It’s 10.45pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israel’s military pounded the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of a seven-day truce. Israel launched more than 200 strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, including in the densely populated south, where many civilians have fled. Khan Younis, which was previously attacked less heavily than the north of Gaza, was almost bombed from the air immediately after the truce broke down. Israel has signaled that it is preparing to launch a ground assault into southern Gaza in a significant escalation of the war.Gaza’s health ministry said 178 civilians had been killed since the ceasefire ended.
Israel’s military has set out its plan for the “next stage of the war”: dividing Gaza into dozens of numbered “evacuation areas”, a core part of the military’s plan to gradually take control of the southern part of the strip. Under the plan, people in certain numbered districts of Gaza will be told to evacuate before bombing begins, although how much time they will get is not clear. Leaflets were dropped in parts of Khan Younis, where Israel believes Hamas’s leadership is based, warning citizens to evacuate further south to Rafah.
Humanitarian groups said the Israeli warnings would be insufficient because civilians in Gaza were running out of places to evacuate to. Palestinians risked being forced completely out of the territory, they said. Homes in Khan Younis were among the targets struck on Friday hours after the truce expired, and residents were given little, if any, time to flee.
The resumption of hostilities came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to brush aside US calls to pursue a more restrained military campaign. Netanyahu said his country’s forces were now “charging forward” and that the plan was for a total military victory. In a difficult meeting on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinkenclashed with the Israeli cabinet over its military tactics, levels of international support and plans for future governance in Gaza. Blinken insisted the level of civilian casualties had to be reduced in any resumed assault and that Israel had to share its long-term objectives for Gaza with moderate Arab states.
The UN said it deeply regretted the resumption of deadly hostilities in the Gaza Strip, calling the situation “catastrophic”. The body also said it was concerned by suggestions Israel could seek to expand its military offensive inside the Palestinian territory. The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, urged efforts to be redoubled to try to bring about a ceasefire on humanitarian and human rights grounds.
Rishi Sunak has described the breakdown of the truce as “deeply disappointing” and issued renewed calls for “sustained humanitarian pauses” in Gaza as he held talks with Israel’s president and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Jordan on the sidelines of the Cop28 summit on Friday.
Two people were killed during Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to reports, as the end of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas prompted a resumption of hostilities at the border. Hezbollah said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions at the border.
Israel’s military was aware of Hamas’ plan to launch an attack on Israeli soil more than a year before the bloody 7 October terror attack, according to a New York Times report. The document was reportedly circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence officials, who dismissed the plan as being of a scale and ambition that was beyond Hamas’s capabilities.
The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior state department official said, in the first sign that the US is prepared to publicly distance itself from some of the Israeli government’s actions
The families of hostages being held in Gaza have said they are terrified about the safety of their loved ones after the end of a seven-day ceasefire.
The relatives of some of the remaining 126 Israeli hostages have said they are grappling with feeling joy for those who have been released, while being worried sick for loved ones left behind.
Shahar Mor Zahiro, whose uncle Avraham Munder, 78, was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz on 7 October, said:
I’m sad and worried. The return of the fighting, violence and escalation makes me feel scared. Every time a bomb falls near my uncle, we know he can hear it and we are afraid for his life.
Zahiro’s family are among many who were separated during the Hamas attack. Avraham’s wife, Ruti Munder, 78, their daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, nine, were abducted separately and freed on the first day of the ceasefire.
The family has been speaking to other recently freed hostages in an effort to find out the fate of Avraham, who is frail and plagued by health problems.
Zahiro, 52, said it was a “comfort” to discover that Avraham was being held with other people from Nir Oz, including Nili Margalit, a 41-year-old nurse who tended to the captives before her release on Thursday.
“She took care of them, but now they’re left alone, so the situation has got worse in many aspects,” Zahiro said.
Time is not on their side. The hostages don’t have their usual medications and they live in inhumane conditions.
Israel has blocked aid from entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said.
In a series of posts on social media, the PRCS said Israeli forces had informed all organizations operating at the crossing that the entry of aid trucks into Gaza “is prohibited, starting from today until further notice”, adding:
This decision exacerbates the suffering of citizens and increases the challenges facing humanitarian and relief organizations in alleviating the hardships of citizens and displaced persons due to the ongoing aggression on the #Gaza Strip.
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By Madeline Halpert & Sam Cabral on Capitol Hill
BBC News
The US House of Representatives has expelled congressman George Santos, following a damning ethics report and dozens of criminal charges.
"To hell with this place," Mr Santos told reporters as he left the Capitol.
The New York Republican is only the sixth lawmaker in history to be removed from the lower chamber of Congress, and the first since 2002.
His tenure was marked by multiple lies about his past and allegations of fraud - all revealed after his election.
Friday's was the third attempt to oust Mr Santos after two previous votes failed.
The 35-year-old from Queens made a quick exit from the Capitol before the vote ended as its outcome became clear, rushing past a swarm of reporters and into a waiting SUV.
"As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question from you guys," he said.
Lawmakers backed the expulsion resolution 311 to 114, with 206 Democrats and 105 Republicans voting in favour.
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Scattered applause was heard across the House chamber after the measure was adopted.
Over 11 months in office, Mr Santos faced an endless stream of controversy and countless calls to resign from members of both parties.
His troubles began shortly after winning election to the House in November 2022, when the New York Times reported he had lied about a Wall Street career, his college degrees and having Jewish ancestry.
Since then, the allegations have only piled up. He has been accused of a range of fabrications, from scamming Amish dog breeders in Pennsylvania to claiming his mother died in the 9/11 terror attacks.
In May, he was charged with 23 felonies, including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. He denies the allegations and is awaiting trial.
But the final blow came last month, when the House ethics committee found he had exploited "every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit".
Among its many allegations, the panel accused him of spending campaign money on Botox treatments, credit card debt, OnlyFans - a platform where users pay for content, including pornography - and trips to the Hamptons seaside enclave in New York.
Expulsion votes are rare in Congress and require the backing of two-thirds of the House.
Two previous efforts to remove Mr Santos failed, after some lawmakers argued it would set a bad precedent to remove someone who had not been convicted of crimes or tried in a court of law.
Jim Jordan, a Republican who voted against the expulsion, told the BBC he worried "who's next".
"The voters elected him," he said. "You've got to be careful in taking a vote to kick out of Congress someone the voters sent to Congress."
A group of four New York Republicans, all elected alongside Mr Santos, had been trying to get him ousted.
"The precedent that is set is that we hold members of Congress to a higher standard," said one, Anthony D'Esposito.
"It shouldn't have come to this," he added. "He should have held himself accountable. He should have resigned."
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In the days after the release of the ethics committee's report, Mr Santos had refused to quit, slamming colleagues online and daring them to remove him.
"This place is run on hypocrisy," he told reporters earlier this week. "If they want me to leave Congress, they're going to have to take that tough vote."
Constituents in his district welcomed the news, with one saying only "good riddance" when asked for their reaction.
Jody Kassfinkel, who campaigned to have Mr Santos removed, told the BBC his expulsion was "a win for democracy".
"We knew this was the only way to go because this man has no shame and he was not going to resign on his own," she said.
What happens next?
As soon as the vote was gavelled out, Mr Santos officially became a former member of Congress.
His official website was taken down, his staff phones now go to a generic voicemail and the nameplate outside his office - where some people stopped by to take selfies on Friday - was removed.
A sign attached to the doorway says "Yes! We're open" - but there were no signs of life inside except for a staffer who briefly exited to pick up flowers left at the entrance.
The New Yorker no longer has the ability to vote on legislation or to rely on his government health benefits, and he is not eligible for a congressional legislative pension.
He can still dine, however, in the exclusive House restaurant, exercise in the Capitol gym or borrow books from the Library of Congress - all privileges afforded to former members of Congress.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has 10 days to call for an election, which will likely take place next February.
Republicans will be campaigning in the shadow of Mr Santos's scandals and there is no guarantee the special election will grow the party's narrow eight-seat majority in the House.
It caps a stunning tale of a man who scored an upset victory in a Democratic-leaning district and became the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress.
With a federal fraud trial looming next year, some have speculated he will sign a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid prison time, as he did with a case in his native Brazil earlier this year.
If not, he faces a maximum penalty of at least 20 years behind bars.
Additional reporting by Pratiksha Ghildial and Nadine Yousif.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.
Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.
Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.
Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.
“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.
Harry Davies and BethanMcKernan are in Jerusalem, and report here on the AI-driven “factory” that increases the number of targets for strikes in Palestine.
Israel’s military has made no secret of the intensity of its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. In the early days of the offensive, the head of its air force spoke of relentless, “around the clock” airstrikes. His forces, he said, were only striking military targets, but he added: “We are not being surgical.”
There has, however, been relatively little attention paid to the methods used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to select targets in Gaza, and to the role artificial intelligence has played in their bombing campaign.
As Israel resumes its offensive after a seven-day ceasefire, there are mounting concerns about the IDF’s targeting approach in a war against Hamas that has so far killed more than 15,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The IDF has long burnished its reputation for technical prowess and has previously made bold but unverifiable claims about harnessing new technology. After the 11-day war in Gaza in May 2021, officials said Israel had fought its “first AI war” using machine learning and advanced computing.
You can read more here:
Here is a dispatch from the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh in Jerusalem.
Israel’s military announced on Friday morning that it was dividing the entirety of Gaza into dozens of numbered blocks as a prelude, it said, to demanding targeted local evacuations in the crowded south of the strip ahead of planned bombing. It dropped leaflets over Gaza on Friday with a QR code to a website with a map of all the areas and geolocating people within them.
Earlier this week Israeli military sources said they anticipated the next phase of the operation in Gaza to involve an attack on the south, and in particular Khan Younis, where it believes Hamas’s leadership is based, and that Israel’s Defense Forces would call for the local civilian population to relocate on a district by district basis before likely targeting the area with airstrikes and artillery.
Humanitarian groups said on Friday that such a plan to divide and attack the south, where 2 million people are now sheltering, risked stretching Gaza to breaking point. “There is fundamentally nowhere for people to go,” said Danila Aizi, the Palestine country manager for charity Humanity and Inclusion.
Another Palestinian armed group has admitted attacking Israel, as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, also known as the al-Qassam brigades, which is Hamas’ armed wing, said it launched a rocket barrage on Ashkelon, Sderot and Beersheba in southern Israel.
On its Telegram channel, the group said the attack comes “in response to the targeting of civilians”.
The military arm of another Gaza-based armed group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also known as al-Quds, said it had targeted cities and towns close to the fence along the strip earlier in the day as a truce ended.
Air raid sirens have sounded in the southern Israeli settlements of Yad Mordechai and Netiv Hatara, close the Gaza Strip, according to a statement on Telegram by Israel’s Home Front Command responsible for civil defence.
Palestinian fighters had said earlier that they had launched a volley of rockets towards Israel.
Qatar has confirmed that talks are continuing between Israel and Palestine with the aim of the ceasefire resuming.
Its ministry of foreign affairs posted a statement on X, saying: “The state of Qatar expresses its deep regret at the resumption of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip following the end of the humanitarian pause, without reaching an agreement to extend it.
“The state of Qatar is committed, along with its mediation partners, to continuing the efforts that led to the humanitarian pause, and will not hesitate to do everything necessary to return to calm.”
It added: “The ministry stresses that the continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the pause complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip, and in this context calls on the international community to move quickly to stop the violence.”
It went on to condemn the targeting of civilians, collective punishment and “attempts to forcibly displace citizens of the besieged Gaza Strip”.
Qatar had successfully brokered the agreement a week ago for the ceasefire to come into effect, which saw the release of hostages and prisoners.
Hamas said on Friday morning that Israel refused an offer for the release more hostages and the bodies of an Israeli family killed in airstrikes. This has not been independently verified.
The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had attacked Israeli cities and towns on Friday.
In a statement on Telegram, the militant group said it was in response to “crimes against our people”, according to Reuters.
Thirty-two Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the truce expired on Friday morning, Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday, according to the ministry’s Telegram account.
The latest figures, reported by Reuters, follow Israeli jets firing on the Gaza Strip minutes after the truce expired on Friday.
The Unicef spokesperson James Elder has reported that an airstrike landed about 50 metres away from the “biggest still functioning hospital in Gaza”.
“This hospital simply cannot take more children with the wounds of war,” he says in a video posted on X. He pans briefly to children asleep on the floor of a hospital room. Elder is the chief of communications for Unicef. His post was accompanied with the caption: “Has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?”
“I cannot overstate how the capacity has been reduced in hospitals over the last seven weeks. We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, the shrapnel littering their body, with their broken bones. Inaction from those with influence is allowing the killing of children. This is a war on children.”
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir,has said that the Israeli military must “return and crush Gaza with all our might”.
In a post on X this morning, he said: “For the sake of the children who have not yet returned, for the murdered who will no longer return, so that the horrors of 7/10 will never return, we must return and crush Gaza with all our might, destroy Hamas and return to the Strip, without compromises, without deals. at maximum power.”
While the ceasefire has expired this morning, negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt with Israel and Hamas are continuing, Reuters reports.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been in contact with both sides since fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday, the source said.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, was seen speaking to the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai.
Israel has been dropping leaflets into parts of southern Gaza, telling residents to leave.
Associated Press reports that they have been dropped in Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
The leaflets warn that the city is now a “dangerous battle zone”. So far since the Israeli response to the Hamas terror attack has focused largely on the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Many had fled the north into the south, taking shelter in areas including Khan Younis.
It comes as fighting has resumed this morning in the Palestinian territory after the ceasefire, which had been in place since 24 November.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.
Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.
Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.
Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.
“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.
Here are images of Antony Blinken boarding a US military plane before his departure from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Friday.
On Thursday the US secretary of state had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the temporary truce to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.
Blinken had told reporters in Tel Aviv of the seven-day pause in fighting:
Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward. We want an eighth day and beyond.
On his third trip to the Middle East since 7 October, Blinken also said the US remained committed to supporting Israel’s right to self-defence, but that Israel must protect civilians if it started major military operations in southern Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes have hit southern Gaza, including the community of Abassan east of the city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run territory’s interior ministry said.
Another strike hit a home north-west of Gaza City, it said.
The strikes came as the Israeli military said its fighter jets hit Hamas targets in Gaza as the war resumed in full force after the weeklong truce expired, Associated Press reports.
Loud, continuous explosions were heard coming from Gaza and black smoke billowed from the territory on Friday morning.
In Israel, sirens blared at three communal farms near Gaza, warning of incoming rocket fire, suggesting Hamas had also resumed its attacks.
The Israeli military’s announcement of the strikes came just 30 minutes after the ceasefire expired at 7am (0500 GMT) on Friday.
Earlier Friday, Israel accused Hamas of having violated the terms of the ceasefire.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas did not agree to release further hostages, infringing on the terms of the truce, and that Israel remained committed to achieving its objectives as fighting resumed.
Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that Hamas did not release all women captives as agreed and also launched rockets at Israel, Reuters reports.
His office said:
With the resumption of fighting we emphasise 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.
Jason Burke in Jerusalem has filed a full report on the developments this morning:
The first images since the resumption of fighting in Gaza are coming though over the news wires:
Inside the Gaza Strip a journalist reported artillery fire in Gaza City and Israeli warplanes carrying out a series of strikes after the resumption of fighting.
The Agence France-Presse journalist also reported drones could be heard in the air over the south of the territory for the first time since the ceasefire.
The resumption of fighting dashed hopes for an extension of the seven-day truce that had seen a reported 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners released.
The ceasefire also allowed more aid into the ravaged Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the pause in hostilities to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.
Israeli military warplanes are now attacking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces has said on social media.
