U.S. President Donald Trump "fully supports" Israel's renewed deadly air and ground operations in Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.
Leavitt blamed Palestinian resistance group Hamas for Israel's decision to renew its offensive following a breakthrough cease-fire that endured for roughly two months.
Trump "has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home," she said.
"He fully supports Israel and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the actions that they've taken in recent days," Leavitt told reporters when asked if Trump was trying to get a Gaza cease-fire back on track.
More than 700 Palestinians have been killed and over 900 others injured in a deadly air campaign on Gaza that Israel began on Tuesday, shattering the cease-fire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Nearly 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 112,000 others injured in a brutal Israeli military campaign in Gaza since October 2023 when Hamas led a cross-border attack on Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack.
Hamas said it fired rockets at Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv on Thursday in its first military response to the growing civilian death toll.
Israel said it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as troops expanded the ground operations they resumed on Wednesday.
