[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Israeli airstrike kills nine people in north Gaza town, medics say, amid ceasefire disputes

At least nine Palestinians were killed, including three local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's northern Beit Lahiya town, Gaza's health ministry said, as Hamas' leaders hold Gaza ceasefire talks with mediators in Cairo. Several were critically injured a

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Israeli airstrike kills nine people in north Gaza town, medics say, amid ceasefire disputes
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 15, 2025 21:56
Updated :
Mar 15, 2025 21:56

Northern Gaza Strip March 15, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

At least nine Palestinians were killed, including three local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's northern Beit Lahiya town, Gaza's health ministry said, as Hamas' leaders hold Gaza ceasefire talks with mediators in Cairo.

Several were critically injured as the strike hit a car, with casualties inside and outside the vehicle, health officials told Reuters.

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Witnesses and fellow journalists said the people in the car were on a mission for a charity called Al-Khair Foundation in Beit Lahiya, and they were accompanied by journalists and photographers when the strike hit them. At least three local journalists were among the dead, according to Palestinian media.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had struck two individuals that it identified as "terrorists" operating a drone that it said posed a threat to forces in Beit Lahiya.

The military later struck several other suspects who it said had collected the drone equipment and entered a vehicle.

The military did not say how it had determined that the individuals it had struck were "terrorists" or provide detail on the threat that the drone had posed to its soldiers.

The incident underscores the fragility of the January 19 ceasefire agreement that halted large-scale fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the truce.

Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, denied the army's allegations.

"The team was made of civilians and worked in an area near a shelter on a mission sponsored by a charity. They didn't exist in a prohibited area and didn't pose any danger of any kind to the occupation army," Marouf said in a statement.

The Palestinian militant group accused Israel in a statement of attempting to renege on the ceasefire agreement, putting the number of Palestinians killed since January 19 at 150.

It urged mediators to compel Israel to move ahead with the implementation of the phased ceasefire deal, blaming Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the current impasse.

Responding to some of the incidents reported by Gaza medics, the Israeli military says its forces have intervened to thwart threats by "terrorists" approaching its forces or planting bombs on the ground near where forces operate.

Since a temporary first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 2, Israel has rejected opening the second phase of talks, which would require it to negotiate over a permanent end to the war, the main demand of Hamas.

The incident coincided with a visit by Hamas' exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, to Cairo for further ceasefire talks aimed at resolving disputes with Israel that could risk a resumption of fighting in the enclave.

On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free an American-Israeli dual national if Israel begins the next phase of ceasefire talks towards a permanent end to the war, an offer Israel dismissed as "psychological warfare."

Hamas said it had made the offer to release New Jersey native Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army, after receiving a proposal from mediators for negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal.

Israel says it wants to extend the ceasefire's temporary first phase, a proposal backed by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase.

The war began when Hamas carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the territory to rubble and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.​

 

[Saif]

'A terrible beauty is born' in Gaza and West Bank

Pre-occupation Palestine had, to use Anglo-American poet WH Auden's words, "marble well-governed cities" full of "vines and olive trees." But Israel and its allies have turned it into "an artificial wilderness"

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'A terrible beauty is born' in Gaza and West Bank

Pre-occupation Palestine had, to use Anglo-American poet WH Auden's words, "marble well-governed cities" full of "vines and olive trees." But Israel and its allies have turned it into "an artificial wilderness"

PHOTO: COLLECTED

The Easter Rising of 1916 against British rule in Ireland has both political and literary significance. It marked one of the foundational moments in European history that led to the liberation of the Irish state six years later. WB Yeats's famous poem "Easter 1916" gives the rebellion a literary expression that transcends political and geographical boundaries.

Through the uprising, the Irish rebels took the British coloniser as well as the people of Ireland by surprise. It was planned so furtively that even a close observer of Irish politics like Yeats was unaware of what was going on among the rebels. They sought to free their country from centuries-old British colonial rule.

Yeats thought that the Easter uprising was premature, and its unpredictability and suddenness initially shocked him. Later he surmounted his shock and reservations about the revolt and composed the poem to commemorate the heroism and sacrifice of the rebels.

In the Easter armed rebellion, about 1600 members of the paramilitary group Irish Volunteers (now known as the Irish Republican Army or IRA) in addition to 200 fighters of the more radical organisation the Irish Citizen Army took control of several key points in Dublin on Monday, 24 April, 1916. The General Post Office (GPO) in the city was the epicentre of the insurrection.

Initially the British colonial government was unprepared and suffered casualties, but later it deployed additional soldiers eventually totalling about 20,000 against roughly 2000 Irish freedom fighters. On the whole, the British response to the uprising was brutal, cruel and ruthless. By Friday, April 28, 1916, the armed struggle was crushed and the fighting ended the next day. Nearly 500 people including civilians, rebels, British troops, and police officers were killed. Within a couple of weeks, the British government put to death 15 of the key rebel leaders by firing squad.

The steadfastness and determination of the rebel leaders and the manner in which they were killed galvanised retrospective support for the uprising and garnered public sympathy for them. Like many others, Yeats was ambivalent about the Easter rising and had mixed emotions about its leaders. But the rebels' commitment to the cause of Irish liberation and their resolute conviction that the country they loved needed their support changed Yeats's perception of them.

The steadfastness and determination of the rebel leaders and the manner in which they were killed galvanised retrospective support for the uprising and garnered public sympathy for them. Like many others, Yeats was ambivalent about the Easter rising and had mixed emotions about its leaders.

In "Easter 1916", Yeats repeats the phrase "a terrible beauty is born" to refer to what the rebels did for their country and the cost that they paid. The inhuman savagery of the British was terrible, but the selflessness and bravery that the Irish revolutionaries demonstrated were most beautiful.

Yeats's elegant oxymoron of "a terrible beauty" can be extended to the situation in Palestine. Most people passionate about the cause of Palestine had conflicting feelings when on October 7, 2023, a group of Palestinians launched a surprise attack on apartheid Israel, their long-term oppressor. Global sympathy was divided, and Israel received comforting words from many world leaders.

However, Israel's indiscriminate killings of Palestinians in Gaza and continued settler terrorism in the West Bank, and finally over a yearlong livestreamed genocide in Gaza shifted public sympathy in favour of the victims of Israel's aggression. People of the world have watched the unspeakably sickening cruelty of Israel and its backers and undoubtedly horrifying devastation that the Zionist genocide has left in Gaza.

Pre-occupation Palestine had, to use Anglo-American poet WH Auden's words, "marble well-governed cities" full of "vines and olive trees." But Israel and its allies have turned it into "an artificial wilderness." Gaza is now:

"A plain without a feature, bare and brown,

No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,

Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down."

During this time and previously, Palestine has been a battleground between some of the most powerful nations and some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth. Again to borrow Auden's words, against their oppressors, defenceless Palestinians

"could not hope for help and no help came:

What their foes liked to do was done."

Israeli government and its allies have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians children, men and women, demolished their houses, destroyed their schools, colleges, and universities, turned their hospitals to rubble, killed doctors who treated them, butchered journalists who told the world about their ordeals, murdered teachers who taught their children and assassinated aid workers who stood by them in their difficulty. Israel and its allies perpetrated all the above and many other atrocities against Palestinians to break their will to resist. But the genociders have been defeated by Palestinians' willpower, strong resolve and formidable opposition to foreign occupation.

Without any support from the rest of the world, vulnerable Palestinians stood up to powerful nations that have continued providing arms and ammunition and diplomatic support to Israel, especially, Gazans have remained steadfast and resilient in the face of barbarity and evil that epitomise the behaviour of their oppressors.

Despite military superiority, Israel and its Euro-American allies have not been able to break the courage of Palestinians and their urge for resistance. Against the sadistic and bellicose behaviour of the Israeli administration and its sophisticated weaponry, Palestinians are armed with an enormous dose of courage and spurred by love for their land.

The land that has been littered with blood and dead bodies of Palestinians bears a strong testimony that it belongs to those who are ready to die for it and not to those who have come to destroy it. Every injured Palestinian child and bereaved parent declare in unison that Palestinians will continue to live and die in their land and their source of strength is not modern, hi-tech weapons but truth and moral rectitude.

Most Palestinians who live in Gaza and the West Bank have their roots in cities in what is now Israel. They or their ancestors were uprooted from their homes when the Zionist state was established. Even before the post-October 7, 2023 genocide, Gazans were already living in a condition that commentators regarded as Israel's open-air prison or the world's largest concentration camp. By making life in Gaza increasingly unbearable in pre-during-and post-genocide periods, Israel and its backers seek to ramp up their ethnic cleansing project. Thus, Palestine's "casual comedy" is still in play.

Every time we open the newspaper or turn on the news channel, we see scores of Palestinians are butchered or buried in their homes which Israeli bombings have turned into mountains of rubble. Using Yeats's words, we tend to ask:

"O when may it suffice?"

Palestinian homes that now look like demolition sites were once inhabited by men and women along with their old parents and young children. Their homes were bombed while they were inside them. We now see only the rubble, debris and ruins of destroyed buildings. But how was the experience of those who were living there with their families during the horrifying moments of the bombings?

We are required to raise the level of our psychological adaptability even to imagine the frightening sounds, fallen pieces of concrete, and dust in the midst of which Palestinians regularly die or survive with significant bodily impairments and other devastating outcomes. When houses are bombed and reduced to heaps of debris, how do their occupants and people around feel?

The patience and resilience of Palestinians in the midst of genocide and decades-long human rights violations tell us about the beauty of their "hearts" which have been "enchanted to a stone" of single-minded devotion to Palestinian liberation. This resonates with what Yeats said about the freedom-loving Irish:

"Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart."

By daring to stay put in the face of death and destruction, for decades Palestinians have been affirming their love for their land and confronting injustice with dignity and resilience. Conversely, the ugliness and hypocrisy stored in the hearts of their oppressors are exposed out there for all to see.

While the global conscience is continuously challenged by Israeli aggression, inhumanity and intolerance, as in 1916 Dublin, "a terrible beauty is born" in present-day Gaza and the West Bank.

Md Mahmudul Hasan is Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say

Israeli military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed

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Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 16, 2025 18:49
Updated :
Mar 16, 2025 18:49

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, in the northern Gaza Strip March 15, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Photo : Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, in the northern Gaza Strip March 15, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Israeli military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza.

Israel's military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by "terrorists" approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect.

Gaza's Health Ministry said most of the latest deaths took place on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said six men that it had identified as members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad militant group had been killed in the strike. It said some of the militants had operated "under the cover of journalists".

Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the military's statement about the incident included the names of people who were not present.

It was based on inaccurate social media reports "without even bothering to verify the facts", Marouf said.

At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.

An Israeli drone had fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza on Sunday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others, the medics said. Several others were hurt when an Israeli drone fired a missile towards a group of people in Rafah, they added.

The Israeli military said it was not familiar with the reported drone strikes.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

Persistent bloodshed in Gaza underscores the fragility of the three-stage ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, which have stepped in to hammer out a deal between Israel and Hamas over how to proceed.

Israel wants to extend the ceasefire's first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators' response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.

Hamas on Friday said it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel responded by accusing Hamas of waging "psychological warfare" on the families of hostages.

The war began when Hamas carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the territory to rubble, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.​

 

[Saif]

US says Hamas bears 'total responsibility' for Gaza deaths

"Every death would have and could have been avoided had Hamas accepted the 'bridge' proposal that SE Witkoff offered last Wednesday," says a State Department spokesperson

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US says Hamas bears 'total responsibility' for Gaza deaths

People sit as Palestinians make their way to flee their homes, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighborhoods, following heavy Israeli strikes, in the northern Gaza Strip March 18, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa

The United States said Tuesday that Hamas bore full blame for Israel's massive deadly airstrikes, saying the militants could have accepted a ceasefire extension proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

"Hamas bears total responsibility for the war, and for the resumption of hostilities," a State Department spokesperson said.

"Every death would have and could have been avoided had Hamas accepted the 'bridge' proposal that SE Witkoff offered last Wednesday."

It was a reference to ideas from Witkoff, a friend of President Donald Trump, to ease Israel and Hamas toward extending a ceasefire.

Israel said it had no choice but to resume fighting to free remaining hostages seized on October 7, 2023. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that more than 400 people died.

"Hamas is delaying the compelling deal in front of us and forcing Palestinians to suffer the consequences," the State Department spokesperson said.

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said earlier: "Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war."

The Trump administration has staunchly backed Israel, whose resumed military operations drew condemnation from most world capitals which reacted.​

 

[Saif]

Gazans plunged back into chaos with resumption of Israeli strikes

'There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them,' a displaced victim says

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Gazans plunged back into chaos with resumption of Israeli strikes

Palestinians flee the area after Israeli bombardment in central Gaza City. Photo: AFP

Mourners cried over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead early on Tuesday, as a wave of Israeli strikes plunged Gazans back into chaos.

"They opened the fire of hell again on Gaza," said Ramez al-Amarin, 25, a displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southeast of Gaza City.

"There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them," he added.

Amarin said he transported several of his neighbours' children to hospital but there were no beds for them.

Outside the Al-Ahli hospital, which was already functioning at reduced capacity due to Israel blocking the entry of humanitarian aid to the territory, dozens of bodies had been lined up.

The bare feet of the dead protruded from under some of the shrouds, while relatives sat alongside them and held their heads in their hands and cried.

Amarin said he didn't "expect the war to return because (US President Donald) Trump said he doesn't want wars".

Overnight, Israel unleashed its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a fragile ceasefire commenced on January 19, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 400 people killed.

Israel has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until all hostages held in the Palestinian territory are returned, with Prime Minister Netanyahu's office saying the operation was ordered after Hamas's "repeated refusal to release our hostages".

Hamas accused Netanyahu of deciding to "resume war" after an impasse in truce negotiations and warned that a return to fighting could be a "death sentence" for the hostages that Palestinian militants are still holding alive in Gaza.

The initial phase of the ceasefire took effect in January, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting which devastated the Gaza Strip.

The war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and triggered widespread hunger while destroying or damaging more than 69 percent of the territory's buildings according to the United Nations.

'Real hell'

Israel announced in early March that it was blocking all aid into the strip and a week later cut off electricity supplying the territory's main water desalination plant.

Gaza's civil defence agency has for weeks said that it lacks the supplies to provide first aid to the territory's population of some 2.4 million people.

"There is bombing everywhere, today I felt that Gaza is a real hell," said Jihan Nahhal, 43, a mother living in northwest Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.

Nahhal said she heard Israeli air force planes flying overhead as she prepared her pre-dawn meal -- the bombardment came with Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan in which they fast during daylight hours.

"Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war," she said.

"Everywhere there was screaming and fires raging, and most of them were children."

"It is a real war of extermination," she added, condemning Israel.

In Beit Hanoun, a northern town close to the Israeli border, residents began to flee with bags and blankets piled on their heads, even before the army urged them to evacuate on Tuesday morning.

In Gaza City, residents left a school that had been turned into a shelter for the displaced.

Some scoured through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the strikes in search of casualties.

Families in Deir el-Balah inspected the damage to their homes, as a woman held a shaken-looking young boy in her arms.

"This is my grandson, he was rescued from under the rubble," said Um Abdullah Masmah.

Standing amid debris, her neighbour, Eyad Sabah, said he felt like he'd "gone back to square one, back to zero."

"This night reminded us of the return of war once again," he said.

"How long will this situation continue?"​

 

[Saif]

‘Desperate and scared’

Palestinians in Gaza were woken up by Israel unleashing a new wave of attacks on Gaza which killed at least 404 people and wounded 562.

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‘Desperate and scared’
Palestinians react as entire families wiped out in strikes

Palestinians in Gaza were woken up by Israel unleashing a new wave of attacks on Gaza which killed at least 404 people and wounded 562.

The attacks on Tuesday not only shattered a period of relative calm in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but also the fragile ceasefire deal Israel had with Hamas.

Palestinians who had returned to their damaged and destroyed homes after the ceasefire came into effect were also targeted by Israel's relentless bombing as entire families were wiped out in seconds.

"We were shocked late at night to see strikes and attacks on Gaza like in the early days of the war," Momen Qoreiqeh, who lost 26 members of his family in the attacks, told Al Jazeera.

"I was with my family and suddenly there was a huge attack on our residential block. The attack killed so many people from my family, some of them we still haven't recovered from under the rubble."

Ahmed Abu Rizq, a teacher, recounted the initial hours of the Israeli attacks, which added to the state of sheer horror and panic being witnessed at the hospitals.

"We woke up frightened, hearing Israeli strikes everywhere in Gaza. If you're now in one of Gaza's hospitals, you will see blood everywhere," said Abu Rizq, adding that he had seen families arriving at hospital with the "remains of their children" in their hands.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said that Israel's strikes had once again turned Gaza into a "killing box".

"Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City is overwhelmed with the number of mass casualties arriving," said Mahmoud. "We've seen entire families [killed] brought here, including a family of 26, with women, children and elderly. We've seen a mother here, crying over the bodies of her two daughters.

"Last night's attacks prove again that there is no safe place across Gaza. People had gone back to bombed homes and evacuation centres, thinking it was going to be safe due to the ceasefire, but that was not the case. They were killed inside these very places."

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera that "every minute, a wounded person dies due to a lack of resources".

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in the centre of Gaza, Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said the Health Ministry was calling for urgent blood donations owing to "severe shortages" in supplies.

"Health facilities are also short on basic medical supplies they need to treat the wounded, like gauze and painkillers," she said.

Existing shortages in hospitals have been exacerbated by Israel's barring of aid trucks, which have not been allowed to enter the territory for more than two weeks.

"Doctors are saying that this is a very big challenge," said Khoudary. "In addition, there is a shortage of fuel that is putting all medical facilities at risk of collapse.

"The expectation here was people would at least spend the last days of Ramadan without any air strikes. There are a lot of people missing and trapped under the rubble. Palestinians are desperate and parents are scared."​

 

[Saif]

Why has Israel resumed large-scale strikes on Gaza?

Israel has resumed large-scale attacks in Gaza with a wave of airstrikes and artillery fire against targets throughout the devastated territory. More than 400 have been killed and hundreds more injured, according to Palestinian authorities.

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Why has Israel resumed large-scale strikes on Gaza?

Injured Palestinians mourn beside the body of a baby, who was killed in an Israeli strike, at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Israel has resumed large-scale attacks in Gaza with a wave of airstrikes and artillery fire against targets throughout the devastated territory. More than 400 have been killed and hundreds more injured, according to Palestinian authorities.

The casualties include some high-ranking Hamas officials and many civilians, including women and children. Hospitals and civil defence teams say they have been overwhelmed.

Israel has also issued evacuation orders for parts of northern and central Gaza close to the perimeter, suggesting that some kind of attack involving troops on the ground is imminent. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Palestinians in the territory who have only recently returned to their homes, often in ruins, are on the move again.

Why is it happening now?

The Israeli government has been threatening to launch an offensive for weeks. Israeli officials say targeting the Hamas leadership, which has re-emerged in recent weeks to again take control of Gaza, will bring about the release of more hostages. Many hostage families in Israel dispute this.

More practically, Israel now has capabilities it lacked six weeks ago. Ammunition stocks have been replenished – partly due to US deliveries – and new potential targets among Hamas' leaders identified. Planes and other equipment have been repaired. Troops have been rested.

What does this mean for the ceasefire?

The new offensive comes 16 days after the first of three phases of a ceasefire agreed in January ended. The three phases were supposed to lead to a definitive end to the war, a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Indirect talks to prevent a return to violence have stalled. Israel has proposed extending the first phase of the ceasefire by 30 to 60 days to allow for the release of more hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has refused this.

What reasons are being cited for the new strikes?

Critics says Netanyahu never had any intention of moving to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would have meant Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, in effect leaving Hamas as its de facto ruler. Hamas has reasserted its control in recent weeks, humanitarian officials there say, with civilian officials returning to previous posts and the battered military wing finding thousands of new recruits.

A second reason cited is that Israel had the full backing of the Trump administration for renewed attacks against Hamas.

Then there are the domestic political factors. Netanyahu needs support from rightwing allies to win crucial votes in Israel's parliament in coming days and weeks, and to maintain his grip on power. These allies have fiercely opposed a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza, with one resigning from his ministerial post in protest at the January ceasefire. This vital support is now assured – at least in the short term.

Netanyahu is also on trial for corruption. If found guilty, he could face prison. On Tuesday, a court approved Netanyahu's request not to appear at a hearing on Tuesday "due to the renewal of the war", Israeli media reported.

What might happen next?

The grim reality is that the fragile two-month pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas is now over. Israeli officials have made clear that the strikes are merely the beginning of a potentially much broader offensive that will continue until Hamas releases the 59 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

However, the move will not be welcomed by Egypt, which played a key role in the ceasefire negotiations, as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

"The entire region is on the brink of something," said an al Jazeera correspondent, "Clearly, this humiliation of [Egyptian] President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi cannot go by with total impunity."​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 413 in Gaza

Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting in Gaza until all hostages are returned as it unleashed its most intense strikes since a ceasefire, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 400 people killed.

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Israeli strikes kill 413 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 19 March, 2025, 00:04

Palestinian youths salvage items from the destroyed house of the Qrayqea family in the Shujaiya district in eastern Gaza City on Tuesday following Israeli strikes at dawn. | AFP photo

Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting in Gaza until all hostages are returned as it unleashed its most intense strikes since a ceasefire, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reporting more than 400 people killed.

Hamas accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deciding to ‘resume war’ after an impasse in truce negotiations, and warned that the return to fighting could be a ‘death sentence’ for hostages still alive in Gaza.

The strikes were by far the biggest and deadliest since a truce took effect in January. Hamas has not responded to the strikes so far.

Netanyahu warned Hamas this month of consequences it ‘cannot imagine’ if it does not free hostages still in Gaza, and Israeli media reported on plans aimed at ramping up pressure on Hamas dubbed the ‘Hell Plan’.

The White House said Israel consulted US president Donald Trump’s administration before launching the wave of strikes, which the health ministry in Gaza said killed mostly women and children.

Netanyahu’s office said the operation was ordered after ‘Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators’.

‘Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,’ the statement said.

‘We will not stop fighting as long as the hostages are not returned home and all our war aims are not achieved,’ defence minister Israel Katz said.

Apart from the release of the remaining hostages, Israel’s other main war aim is to crush Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas said Israel had ‘decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement’.

‘Netanyahu’s decision to resume war is a decision to sacrifice the occupation’s prisoners and impose a death sentence on them,’ it said.

Hamas said the head of its government in Gaza, Essam al-Dalis, was among several officials killed in the strikes.

A Hamas official said the group was ‘working with mediators’ to stop the bombardment, while the movement blamed what it described as ‘unlimited’ US support for Israel for the deadly strikes.

In Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, AFP footage showed people rushing stretchers with wounded people, including young children, to the Nasser Hospital. Bodies covered with white sheets were also taken to the hospital’s mortuary.

Mohammed Jarghoun, 36, was sleeping in a tent near his destroyed house in Khan Yunis when he was woken by huge blasts.

‘I thought they were dreams and nightmares, but I saw a fire in my relatives’ house. More than 20 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women.’

Ramez Alammarin, 25, described carrying children to hospital southeast of Gaza City.

‘They unleashed the fire of hell again on Gaza,’ he said of Israel, adding that ‘bodies and limbs are on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them.’

Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza pleaded with Netanyahu to ‘stop the killing and disappearance’ of their loved ones, and called for a protest in front of the premier’s residence.

Brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, the initial phase of the ceasefire took effect on January 19, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

That first phase ended in early March, and the two sides have been unable to agree on the next steps.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the bodies of 413 people had been received by Gaza hospitals.

‘A number of victims are still under the rubble and work is underway to recover them,’ it added.

Israel ordered all schools near the Gaza border to shut for fear of attack.

US envoy Witkoff told CNN on Sunday he had offered a ‘bridge proposal’ that would see five living hostages, including Israeli-American Edan Alexander, released in return for freeing a ‘substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners’ from Israel jails.

Hamas had said it was ready to free Alexander and the remains of four others.

Witkoff said Hamas had provided ‘an unacceptable response’ and that ‘the opportunity is closing fast’.

During the first phase of the truce, Hamas released 33 hostages, including eight deceased, and Israel freed around 1,800 Palestinian detainees.

Since then, Hamas has consistently demanded negotiations for the second phase.

Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase which would involve the release of remaining living hostages, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces left in Gaza and the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.

Israel, however, seeks to extend the first phase until mid-April, insisting any transition to the second phase must include ‘the total demilitarisation’ of Gaza and the removal of Hamas.

The talks have been deadlocked, and Israel has cut aid and electricity to the territory.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, while before the overnight strikes, Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza had killed at least 48,577 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the two sides.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

UN chief Antonio Guterres was ‘shocked’ by the renewed strikes, a spokeswoman said, while UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was ‘horrified’.

Both Russia and China warned against an escalation, while Egypt and Turkey condemned the violence.​

 

[Sharma Ji]

Gaza is gone, brozuddins.

finito, khallas.

all that remains is driving people out, and then rebuilding moar ashkenaz settler houses and cities.

I'll go when its all ready, sit pool side at the Trump international there and drink a beer.

 

[Saif]

Fresh Israeli aggression on Gaza: Dhaka expresses 'strongest condemnation'

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today issued a press release in this regard

www.thedailystar.net

Fresh Israeli aggression on Gaza: Dhaka expresses 'strongest condemnation'

The government today expressed its strongest condemnation and profound concerns over the resumption of Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today issued a press release in this regard.

The newly restarted offensive has resulted in extensive loss of innocent civilian lives, including children and women, and the further deterioration of the already dire humanitarian situation in the region, the press release said.

The ministry stated that this renewed cycle of violence represents a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a grievous disregard for established ceasefire agreements.

Bangladesh unequivocally denounces the Israeli occupation forces' continued indiscriminate airstrikes on densely populated civilian areas, which have exacerbated human suffering and inflicted devastating consequences upon the defenseless Palestinian population, the foreign ministry said in the press release.

Through this statement, the government of Bangladesh urged Israel to immediately cease all military operations, exercise maximum restraint, and respect its obligations under international humanitarian law.

Bangladesh further called upon the international community, particularly the United Nations, to take urgent and decisive measures to ensure the cessation of hostilities, protect civilian lives, and facilitate the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to the besieged people of Gaza.

In the press released, the ministry reaffirmed Bangladesh's unwavering support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and the establishment of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine along the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Bangladesh government also drew attention to the necessity of resuming dialogue aimed at a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East, which remains a cornerstone for ensuring regional and global stability.

Bangladesh called upon all parties to prioritise the path of diplomacy and peaceful means to end the senseless violence and suffering that continue to afflict the Palestinian people.

According to the press release, Bangladesh remains committed to working with the international community towards achieving a durable solution to the Palestinian question that is consistent with the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions, and the aspirations of the Palestinian people for peace, dignity, and justice.​

 

[Saif]

Enforce ceasefire in Gaza by any means

Israel has turned the word "ceasefire" into a farce.

www.thedailystar.net

Enforce ceasefire in Gaza by any means
World leaders must take action against Israel’s renewed offensive

VISUAL: STAR

Israel has turned the word "ceasefire" into a farce through its renewed airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday, killing more than 400 Palestinians, most of them women, children, and the elderly. Its offensive, with a green light from the US, has literally buried the three-phased ceasefire truce announced on January 15 under piles of dead bodies across Gaza.

It is evident now that Israel never intended to honour the truce between itself and Hamas, negotiated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt in May 2024. The first phase of the truce, which began on January 19, ended on March 1. During these 42 days, Hamas released 25 living and eight deceased Israeli hostages, while Israel released about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and allowed aid trucks into Gaza. However, Israel then refused to proceed to the second phase that called for a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the return of all remaining hostages by Hamas. Instead, it came up with a new plan. Reportedly, White House envoy Steve Witkoff advanced Israel's proposal to Hamas, offering to extend the first phase of the truce—requiring Hamas to release the remaining hostages—without any promise of Israeli troop withdrawal or a permanent ceasefire agreement.

This raises serious questions about Israel's intentions in ending the conflict, especially given its backtracking from the original agreement and its support for President Donald Trump's absurd plan to build a "Middle Eastern Riviera" in Gaza. What Israel is doing amounts to ethnic cleansing—a genocidal plan to create a Gaza without Gazans. After 15 months of relentless strikes that killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, Gazans returned to the rubble of their homes in mid-January, only to face even deadlier attacks now. And by giving Israel the nod for Tuesday's assault, the US has discarded whatever veil of humanitarian standards it once pretended to uphold.

Under these circumstances, countries that still believe in justice and humanity must not only condemn Israel's crimes but also take action to prevent further loss of lives, using whatever means necessary. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council must wake up and fulfil its mandate to maintain international peace—not as mere observers of an ongoing genocide, but by actively enforcing measures to stop it. We cannot allow a rogue state's refusal to honour a ceasefire agreement to become a death sentence for the Palestinians.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli military says it has begun new ground operation in Gaza

The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local health workers. The operations have extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor,

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli military says it has begun new ground operation in Gaza
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 19, 2025 22:02
Updated :
Mar 19, 2025 22:02

Palestinians make their way to flee their homes, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighborhoods, following heavy Israeli strikes, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip March 19, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Abd Elhkeem Khaled

The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local health workers.

The operations have extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” manoeuvre aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave, the military said.

The renewed ground operations come a day after more than

400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest days since the beginning of the conflict, shattering a ceasefire has largely held since January.

The United Nations said an Israeli airstrike had killed a foreign staffer and wounded five workers at the site of a U.N. headquarters in central Gaza City on Wednesday. But Israel denied the claim, saying it had hit a Hamas site, where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the U.N. office for Project Services, said: “Israel knew that this was a U.N. premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place.”

Israel said its onslaught was “just the beginning”.

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents after 17 months of war that has reduced the enclave to rubble and forced most of its population to evacuate multiple times.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 49,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water.

Israel has accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombings.

The war - the most devastating episode in decades of Israel- Palestinian conflict - was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which gunmen killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.​

 

[Saif]

Fleeing civilians fill Gaza roads

Long lines of fleeing civilians filled the roads of Gaza on Wednesday as Israel kept up its renewed bombardment of the territory for a second day despite a chorus of calls from foreign governments to preserve a fragile January ceasefire...

www.newagebd.net

Fleeing civilians fill Gaza roads
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 19 March, 2025, 23:53

Palestinians leave Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip with their belongings, heading towards Gaza City following Israeli evacuation orders on Wednesday. | AFP photo

Long lines of fleeing civilians filled the roads of Gaza on Wednesday as Israel kept up its renewed bombardment of the territory for a second day despite a chorus of calls from foreign governments to preserve a fragile January ceasefire.

Thousands of protesters massed in Jerusalem, chanting slogans against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who they accuse of undermining democracy and resuming Gaza strikes without regard for hostages.

Protesters shouted ‘You are the head, and you’re to blame’ as well as ‘The blood is on your hands’ at the demonstration near parliament, the largest to take place in Jerusalem for months.

The demonstration was organised by anti-Netanyahu opposition groups protesting the premier’s move to sack Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency.

The war death toll updated daily by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory showed an increase of 970 in the space of 48 hours, though AFP could not confirm how many of them were recorded as casualties from the strikes.

Families with young children fled northern Gaza for areas further south, fearing for their lives after Israel urged civilians to leave areas it described as ‘combat zones’.

A Hamas official said the group was open to talks on getting the ceasefire back on track but rejected Israeli demands to renegotiate the three-stage deal agreed with Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators.

‘Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations but we insist there is no need for new agreements,’ Taher al-Nunu said.

‘We have no conditions, but we demand that the occupation be compelled to immediately halt its aggression and war of extermination, and begin the second phase of negotiations.’

Negotiations have stalled over how to proceed with a ceasefire whose first phase expired in early March, with Israel and Hamas disagreeing on whether to move to a new phase intended to bring the war to an end.

Israel and the United States have sought to change the terms of the deal by extending stage one.

That would delay the start of phase two, which was meant to establish a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and was swiftly rejected by Hamas, which demanded full implementation of the original deal.

‘There is no need for new agreements in light of the existing agreement signed by all parties,’ Nunu said.

Israel and the United States have portrayed Hamas’s rejection of an extended stage one as a refusal to release more Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu’s office said he ordered the renewed strikes on Gaza after ‘Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages’.

In a televised address late Tuesday, the premier said: ‘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.’

The White House said Israel consulted US president Donald Trump’s administration before launching the strikes.

The intense Israeli bombardment sent a stream of new casualties to the few hospitals still functioning in Gaza and triggered fears of a return to full-blown war after two months of relative calm.

Two people, including a United Nations employee, were killed when a UN building in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, was hit, according to a UN source.

One of those killed was employed by the UN Office for Project Services, the source said.

According to a UN statement, ‘an explosive ordnance was dropped or fired at the infrastructure and detonated inside the building.

‘We don’t know at this stage what type it was airdrop weapons, artillery, rocket,’ the statement said.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory blamed Israel, while the Israeli military denied it had struck the UN compound in Deir el-Balah.

AFPTV footage showed UN vehicles and an ambulance transporting three men to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Two of them appeared to have leg injuries and a third had bandages on both arms and abdomen, with traces of blood on his chest.

Thousands of Israelis massed in Jerusalem on Wednesday, accusing Netanyahu of resuming strikes on Gaza without regard for the safety of the remaining hostages.

‘Many people here in Israel are so frustrated with the operation that began yesterday because it’s obvious it will not make Hamas more flexible and bring the release of hostages,’ said Palestinian affairs expert Michael Milshtein of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Centre.

Governments in the Middle East, Europe and beyond called for the renewwwed hostilities to end.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Israel’s raids on Gaza ‘are shattering the tangible hopes of so many Israelis and Palestinians of an end to suffering on all sides’.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she told her Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar that the new strikes on Gaza were ‘unacceptable’.

Both Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the Gaza ceasefire alongside the United States, condemned Israel’s resort to military action.

Israel’s resumption of military operations in Gaza, after it already halted all humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza this month, drew an immediate political dividend for Netanyahu.

The far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which quit his ruling coalition in January in protest at the Gaza ceasefire, rejoined its ranks with its firebrand leader Itamar Ben Gvir again becoming national security minister.

The war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 49,547 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu bombing Gaza again to save political life

ISRAELI forces have killed more than 400 people in Gaza over the past 24 hours, including more than 100 children, according to Palestinian officials...

www.newagebd.net

Netanyahu bombing Gaza again to save political life
20 March, 2025, 00:00

People mourn victims of Israel’s bombardment in Gaza City on March 18, 2025. | Agence France-Presse/ Omar al-Qattaa

Israel’s resumption of war in the Palestinian enclave has nothing to do with the hostages. It is all about clinging to power, writes Ahmad Tibi

ISRAELI forces have killed more than 400 people in Gaza over the past 24 hours, including more than 100 children, according to Palestinian officials.

Men, women and children are paying with their lives for a war that is not about bringing back the Israeli hostages, but rather about the political survival of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel on March 17 resumed massive bombings of the Gaza Strip, a territory where two million Palestinians have been fasting for Ramadan under inhumane conditions of siege, including severe shortages of water and food.

The Israeli public is divided. Some support the onslaught, blindly believing it will bring the hostages home and exact revenge on Hamas. Others, primarily the families of the hostages, warn that Israel’s attacks on Gaza endanger their loved ones.

But despite the claims of Netanyahu and his government, this war has never been about rescuing the hostages.

Israel unilaterally violated the Gaza ceasefire after refusing to proceed to the second phase, which would have secured the release of all remaining hostages. Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected offers from Hamas for their release.

If his government had genuinely prioritised bringing the hostages home, a deal could have been reached long ago. But that would mean ending the war, without which Netanyahu’s coalition would collapse. The fighting has thus become a political tool, carried out under the pretext of security.

Political crisis

NETANYAHU’S resumption of bombing in Gaza indicates that he is willing to go to any lengths to preserve his rule.

It is no coincidence that the March 17th bombardment comes just before a key budget vote, with ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatening to topple the government if a law excluding their community from conscription is not passed, and former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir issuing ultimatums.

The resumption of the Gaza war also comes ahead of a massive planned demonstration in Jerusalem that threatens to expose the depth of Israel’s political crisis, and amid growing public calls for a state commission of inquiry into the failures that led to the Hamas attack on October 7 2023.

Netanyahu operates like Procrustes, the cruel figure from Greek mythology who forced his guests to fit into a bed that was never the right size — if they were too tall, he chopped off their legs; if they were too short, he stretched them until they broke. Anyone who came to him was forcibly ‘adjusted’ to the predetermined measurements.

He is willing to burn everything — innocent lives, Israeli societal cohesion, Middle Eastern stability — just to survive one more day in power.

This is precisely how Netanyahu acts. Rather than seeking realistic solutions, he forces reality to bend to his political needs.

Instead of ending the war with a negotiated deal, he is keeping Israel and the hostages trapped in an artificial framework of brutality and destruction. Instead of confronting his failures, he seeks to eliminate any political, military or public criticism.

For the sake of political survival, everything is permitted, from bombing Gaza’s civilian population, to destroying refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and displacing tens of thousands of people.

To cling to power, Netanyahu is willing to fire the Shin Bet chief for investigating the prime minister’s office; to dismantle the judicial system in an attempt to evade a criminal trial that could send him to prison; and to abandon the hostages, despite their families’ desperate pleas.

Cycle of revenge

A LARGE portion of Israeli society is not asking questions. Some blindly believe the endless stream of lies — that more bombings, and the killing of hundreds more civilians, will somehow make a hostage deal materialise. This cruel and futile cycle of revenge is leading Israel into moral and military decline.

This does not just reflect indifference to Palestinian lives. It is also indifference to the lives of the Israeli hostages. Most of the Israeli public does not demand explanations, nor ask why the government has forfeited opportunities to bring the hostages home.

The national media is also complicit. Instead of exposing these manipulations, journalists and commentators collaborate with Netanyahu, enabling him to engineer the public consciousness.

Netanyahu will go down in history as the primary culprit behind the nation’s greatest failure — the man who abandoned his citizens time and again, sabotaged every diplomatic initiative, and perpetuated an occupation that is the root of all evil.

His negligence has evolved into the repeated commission of war crimes, and yet still he continues.

Like Procrustes, Netanyahu is the one setting the rules and imposing them ruthlessly — and in the end, everyone pays the price. Netanyahu is a danger to Israel, a danger to the children of Gaza, and a danger to the world.

Middle East Eye, March 18. Dr. Ahmad Tibi is the chairman of the Ta’al party and a member of the Knesset​

 

[Saif]

Thousands flee as Israel restarts ground ops

Hamas fires at Tel Aviv in first riposte to ‘massacres’ of Gaza civilians

www.thedailystar.net

Thousands flee as Israel restarts ground ops
Hamas fires at Tel Aviv in first riposte to ‘massacres’ of Gaza civilians

A boy sits amid rubble as Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 20, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled

Israel bombarded Gaza and pressed its ground operations today after issuing what it called a "last warning" for Palestinians to return hostages and remove Hamas from power.

Hamas said it fired rockets at Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv today in its first military response to the growing civilian death toll from Israel's resumption of air and ground operations in Gaza.

Israel said it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as troops expanded the ground operations they resumed on Wednesday.

Gaza's civil defence agency said 504 people had been killed so far in the Israeli assault, including more than 190 children. Its previous death toll was at least 470.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israel's "massacres" of Gaza civilians.

The Israeli army said it intercepted one projectile fired from Gaza and that two others struck an uninhabited area.

After weeks of stalemate, Israel resumed its air campaign early Tuesday with a wave of deadly strikes that drew widespread condemnation.

The offensive shattered a relative calm that had pervaded in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory since a ceasefire took hold on January 19.

At the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, grieving families knelt by the bodies of their loved ones enveloped in blood-stained white shrouds.

"We want a ceasefire! We want a ceasefire!" one of them, Mohammed Hussein, told AFPTV, appealing for the international community to stop the killing.

"We are defenceless Palestinian people," he added.

Today, the Israeli army banned traffic on the territory's main north-south artery.

Palestinians were seen fleeing south along Salaheddin Road near the Nusseirat refugee camp atop donkey-drawn carts piled high with belongings.

"Over the past 24 hours, IDF soldiers have begun a targeted ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone between the northern and southern parts," army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Movement along Salaheddin Road between the north and south of the Gaza Strip is prohibited "for your safety", he said.

"Instead, travel from northern Gaza to the south is possible via the Al-Rashid coastal road," Adraee added, without spelling out whether that meant movement from south to north was banned.

The first stage of the ceasefire expired early this month amid deadlock over next steps.

Israel rejected negotiations for a promised second stage, calling instead for the return of all of its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday deplored "an endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals" on the people of Gaza since Israel resumed its military offensive.

"Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air & sea for the third day," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. "Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again & again going through their worst nightmare."

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel's latest strikes on Gaza a "catastrophic crime" and said the United States "shares responsiblity".

The overall death toll in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive stands at 49,617, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.​