Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled. Hamas, which still holds 59 of the 250 or so hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023 attack, accused Israel of jeopardising efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting, but the group made no threat of retaliation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension during faltering talks. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. The strikes hit homes and tent encampments from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, and Israeli tanks shelled from across the border line, witnesses said. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 404 people had been killed in one of the biggest single-day tolls since the war erupted. “It was a night of hell. It felt like the first days of the war,” said Rabiha Jamal, 65, a mother of five from Gaza City. Egypt and Qatar, mediators in the ceasefire deal along with the U.S., condemned the Israeli assault. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called for immediate international action to compel Israel to abide by the ceasefire agreement and return to negotiations. Russia expressed “deep regret” over the latest airstrikes and the U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified”. Pakistan slammed Israel’s resumption of airstrikes in Gaza that have killed over 400 Palestinians as a “horrific act of aggression” during the holy month of Ramazan, according to a statement from the Foreign Office (FO). “This horrific act of aggression, in the holy month of Ramazan, is a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement and marks a dangerous escalation that threatens to destabilise the entire region once again. “We urge the international community to play its role to immediately end the violence and resume diplomatic efforts towards an immediate and lasting peace in Gaza and the Middle East,” the FO said.