Israel launched new strikes against Hamas and promised ‘increasing military force’ after talks on further hostage releases stalled.

Early Friday morning, Israel’s Prime Minister’s office said it instructed the army to strike Hamas across Gaza.

The announcement stated that the reason behind it was Hamas’ continuous refusal to release its hostages and reject all proposals made by US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators.

After almost two months of a ceasefire meant to halt the 17-month long conflict, during which many hostages were freed in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, the airstrikes were launched.

On Monday, Israel conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 individuals, including a child, as reported by local officials. The Israeli military claimed it was aiming at militants planning attacks.

The airstrikes were the latest in what have been frequent and often deadly attacks by Israeli forces during the fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel has blocked all food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza the past two weeks, demanding Hamas accept changes in the two sides’ ceasefire deal.

In Syria, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel.

The strikes hit a residential area in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city.

The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assad’s forces. It said the materials’ presence posed a threat to Israel.

In central Gaza, two strikes hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck militants planting explosives.

An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gaza’s Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood.

In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were “observation operatives.” Lebanon’s state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded.

The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.

Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefire’s first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.

Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.