KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s war with Hamas resumed in full force Friday, as airstrikes hit houses and buildings in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired. Black smoke billowed from the besieged territory, where health authorities reported dozens of Palestinians killed and Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians to flee to avoid the fighting.

In Israel, sirens warned of incoming rockets at several communal farms near Gaza, where militants took credit for launching attacks.

The resumption of the war threatens to compound the suffering in Gaza. Some 2 million people — almost its entire population — are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the start of the war and has since vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighboring Egypt, the only escape for people is to move around within the 85-square-mile area (220 square kilometres).

Renewed hostilities also heighten concerns for about 140 hostages still held captive there by Hamas and other militants, after more than 100 were freed during the truce.

Qatar, which has served as a mediator along with Egypt, said negotiators were still trying to reach an agreement on restarting the cease-fire. Israel and Hamas traded blame for ending the truce, but Qatar’s Foreign Ministry singled out Israel’s role in the resumption of fighting, saying it “complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe.”

A day earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli officials and urged them to do more to protect Palestinian civilians as they seek to destroy Hamas. Blinken arrived Friday at global climate talks in Dubai, where he was to meet with Arab foreign ministers and other officials.

It was not clear to what extent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will heed the appeals of the United States, Israel’s most important ally.

Netanyahu’s office said Friday that Israel “is committed to achieving the goals of the war: releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel.” Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.

In response to the US calls, the Israeli military released a map dividing the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels. It asked residents to learn the number associated with their location in case of an eventual evacuation.

It was not immediately clear how Palestinians would be updated on evacuation calls or where they would go, with no safe areas designated on the map.

Only hours into the renewed bombardment, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 109 people had been killed and dozens wounded. Israel said it struck more than 200 Hamas targets.

Since the war began, more than 13,300 Palestinians have died, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since November.11. The ministry says thousands more people are feared dead under the rubble.

The war began after the October 7 attack by Hamas and other Palestinian militants, who killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and took around 240 people captive.

RETURN TO BATTLE

About an hour before the cease-fire was to expire early Friday, Israel said it intercepted a volley of rockets fired from Gaza. Minutes after the deadline, the military announced a resumption of combat operations and soon after gave word of new strikes.

In the leaflets it dropped in southern Gaza, Israel urged people to leave homes east of Khan Younis, warning that the southern town was now a “dangerous battle zone.” Other leaflets warned residents of several neighborhoods in Gaza City in the north to move south.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza earlier in the war, in an extraordinary mass exodus that saw many take shelter in Khan Younis and other places in the south.

One of the first airstrikes Friday destroyed a large building in Khan Younis. Moments later, residents were seen frantically searching the rubble for survivors as medics approached. One wounded person was carried away on a stretcher.

“We are women and children here. We have nothing,” said Fatima Nshasi, a relative of a family in the building, as women sobbed nearby. “We were going with life as usual and hoping that the truce would be extended.”