“Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you — and them — this is only the beginning,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.
“From now on, negotiations will take place only under fire,” he said, adding: “Military pressure is essential for the release of additional hostages”.
Tuesday’s strikes, by far the largest since a truce took effect in January, killed more than 400 people across the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Israel vowed to keep fighting until the return of all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hostage families accused Netanyahu of “sacrificing” their relatives’ lives by ordering the intensive strikes.
Hamas, which has not responded militarily so far, accused Israel of attempting to force it to “surrender”.
The United Nations and countries around the world condemned the strikes, while the families of Israeli hostages pleaded with Netanyahu to halt the violence, fearing for the fate of their loved ones.
During his evening address, Netanyahu denied accusations that the resumption of strikes in Gaza was driven by domestic political concerns.