Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas early March 18. The Israel Defense Forces launched air strikes on a Hamas battalion headquarters after the military received intelligence Hamas was planning on using the site to attack Israeli territory. Israel’s navy also attacked several vessels off the Gazan coast reportedly used by both Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The night of March 18–19, Israel sent a second volley of air strikes. The attacks killed, among others, Isaam al-Da’alis, Hamas’s head of government over Gaza.

This follows the collapse of negotiations to extend Israel’s January 19 ceasefire. The ceasefire was set to expire March 1, but Hamas and Israel have been negotiating for an extension. Israel was hoping for more hostages released. Hamas’s main demand was a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. In other words, Hamas wanted Israel to end the war and leave it controlling Gaza. For Israel, this was a nonstarter.

The United States brokered the January ceasefire. It has continued to mediate between Israel and Hamas in the latest round of negotiations but to no avail. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer confirmed “the return to intense fighting in Gaza has been fully coordinated with Washington.” U.S. President Donald Trump gave Hamas an ultimatum on March 5 to release all Israeli hostages or face annihilation.

An Israeli source speaking with the Telegraph said the attack would “expand beyond air strikes” and “continue as long as necessary.” This could indicate Israel is ready to launch its ground invasion with the intensity it had before.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could see this as a temporary measure. An “unnamed military source” told the Telegraph that “the aim of the operation was to push Hamas into accepting the Witkoff proposal, including an extended ceasefire and a greater influx of aid in return for the release of living hostages.”

This doesn’t mean the new round of fighting will end soon. In the strikes’ aftermath, Netanyahu welcomed Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party back into government. Ben-Gvir, who was minister of national security, left Netanyahu’s coalition in protest of the ceasefire. He probably wouldn’t have rejoined the government if it were likely the ceasefire would revive.

The latest developments could lead to Israel vanquishing Hamas for good. Or it could pressure Hamas to sign a lasting ceasefire.

The Trumpet analyzes world news in light of Bible prophecy. One prophecy in the book of Hosea is especially relevant to what is going on in Gaza. It reads: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13).

As late theologian Herbert W. Armstrong details in The United States and Britain in Prophecy (request your free copy), “Ephraim” is a prophetic name for Great Britain. “Judah” is the biblical name for the Jewish state of Israel. “Assyria” is a prophetic name for Germany. The prophecy emphasizes Israel’s national wound.

Strong’s Concordance defines “wound” as “in the sense of binding up: a bandage, i.e. remedy ….” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it as “the pressing together, binding up of a wound; hence used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state ….”

“In other words,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Jerusalem in Prophecy, “the remedy IS the wound!”

Mr. Flurry continues:

Is the peace pact with the Arabs the Israeli wound that God refers to in Hosea 5:13? There would have been no peace pact if Judah would have trusted God instead of men. …

The word wound in Hosea 5:13 means bandage. It’s as if a bandage is hopelessly applied to an open, running sore. From the beginning of the peace process, the Jews have looked to men, often their enemies, for help—not God. That is the unseen wound.

So little trust in God—so much trust in their enemies!

The real wound is spiritual—a lack of faith in God. The Jews keep trying to heal themselves by making peace pacts. They were strong when they trusted God. Even recent history proves that truth. Just a short time ago they were a terror to the Arabs. Now the Arabs are a terror to the Jews. A complete reversal in such a short time! Why?

The Israelis will finally see that their peace pact with the Palestinians has failed. The Jews really only see the effect of their wound. They don’t see the cause. That is why they turn to Germany for another peace pact! This time they place their trust in an even greater enemy! Once again they fail to trust God. It will lead to the worst disaster in the Jews’ long history of suffering.

However the Gaza war ends, don’t expect a lasting victory. Expect Israel to gain a wound of its own making that gets worse until the nation learns this lesson: Its problems can only be solved when it sincerely looks to God as the solution.

To learn more, request a free copy of Jerusalem in Prophecy.