DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Greater than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed within the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the territory’s Well being Ministry stated Sunday, as new Israeli airstrikes killed not less than 26 Palestinians in a single day, together with a Hamas political chief and several other ladies and youngsters.
Israel’s army additionally despatched floor troops into a part of the southern metropolis of Rafah as hundreds of Palestinians fled after new evacuation orders.
Israel ended the newest ceasefire final week with a shock wave of strikes that killed a whole bunch, and it has launched floor incursions in northern Gaza. It says it’s concentrating on militants.
Israel’s Cupboard late Saturday accredited a proposal to arrange a brand new directorate for advancing the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians in step with U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate Gaza and rebuild it for others. Palestinians say they don’t need to go away their homeland, and rights teams say the plan may quantity to expulsion in violation of worldwide legislation.
Displaced Palestinians fleeing from Rafah amid ongoing Israeli army operations after Israel’s renewed offensive within the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, March 23, 2025.
AP Picture/Abdel Kareem Hana
‘Displacement underneath fireplace’
The army ordered folks to go away Rafah’s already closely destroyed Tel al-Sultan neighborhood on foot alongside a single path to Muwasi, a sprawling space of squalid tent camps. The conflict has compelled most of Gaza’s inhabitants of over 2 million to flee throughout the territory, typically a number of occasions.
“It is displacement underneath fireplace,” stated Mustafa Gaber, a journalist who left along with his household. He stated tank and drone fireplace echoed close by. “There are wounded folks amongst us. The scenario may be very tough,” he stated.
“The shells are falling amongst us and the bullets are (flying) above us,” stated Amal Nassar, additionally displaced from Rafah. “The aged have been thrown into the streets. An previous lady was telling her son, ‘Go and go away me to die.’ The place will we go?”
The Palestinian Purple Crescent emergency service stated it misplaced contact with a group of medics responding to the strikes. Spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh stated some have been wounded.
There was no instant remark from Israel’s army, which says it solely targets militants. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas as a result of it operates in densely populated areas.
Smoke rises to the sky after an explosion within the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, March 23, 2025.
AP Picture/Leo Correa
Strikes kill Hamas chief, ladies and youngsters
Hamas stated Salah Bardawil, a well known member of its political bureau, was killed in a strike in Muwasi that additionally killed his spouse.
Hospitals in southern Gaza stated they acquired an additional 24 our bodies from strikes in a single day, together with a number of ladies and youngsters.
Gaza’s Well being Ministry stated 50,021 Palestinians have been killed within the conflict and greater than 113,000 have been wounded. That features 673 folks killed since Israel’s bombardment on Tuesday shattered the ceasefire.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, the ministry’s common director, stated the useless embody 15,613 kids, with 872 of them underneath 1 yr previous.
The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its depend however says ladies and youngsters make up over half the useless. Israel says it has killed round 20,000 fighters, with out offering proof.
Mourners collect across the our bodies of relations killed within the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they’re introduced for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, March 23, 2025.
AP Picture/Abdel Kareem Hana
Ceasefire in tatters
The ceasefire that took maintain in January paused greater than a yr of preventing ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 assault into Israel, wherein militants killed some 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and took 251 hostage. Most captives have been launched in ceasefire agreements or different offers.
Within the newest ceasefire’s first section, 25 Israeli hostages and the our bodies of eight others have been launched in trade for practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces pulled again, permitting a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals to return to what stays of their houses. There was a surge in humanitarian support till Israel reduce off all provides to Gaza earlier this month to stress Hamas to alter the ceasefire settlement.
The edges have been supposed to start negotiations in early February on the ceasefire’s subsequent section, wherein Hamas was to launch the remaining 59 hostages – 35 of them believed to be useless – in trade for extra Palestinian prisoners, a long-lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
These talks by no means started. Israel backed out of the ceasefire settlement after Hamas refused Israeli and U.S.-backed proposals to launch extra hostages forward of any talks on a long-lasting truce.
A whole lot of Israelis gathered outdoors Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace in Jerusalem on Sunday to protest his dealing with of the conflict and his try and dismiss the pinnacle of the Shin Guess inner safety service.
“I am fearful for the way forward for this nation. And I feel it has to cease. We’ve to alter course,” stated one protester, Avital Halperin.
Protest outdoors the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem, March 23, 2025, as Israeli cupboard is about to carry a no-confidence vote in opposition to Legal professional Basic Gali Baharav-Miara.
AP Picture/Ohad Zwigenberg
New settlements within the West Financial institution
Israel’s cupboard handed a measure Sunday creating 13 new settlements within the occupied West Financial institution by rezoning current ones, in accordance with Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, who’s in control of settlement building.
This brings the variety of settlements, thought of unlawful by the vast majority of the worldwide group, to 140, stated anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now. They’ll now obtain unbiased budgets from Israel and might elect their very own native governments, the group stated.
Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen sustain assaults
In a separate improvement, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who’re allied with Hamas, launched one other missile at Israel in a single day. The Israeli army stated it was intercepted, and there have been no reviews of casualties or harm.
The Houthis resumed assaults on Israel after it ended the Gaza ceasefire, portraying them as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Trump ordered the renewal of U.S. strikes on the rebels final week over its earlier assaults on worldwide transport within the Purple Sea.
The rebels have stated they’re making an attempt to blockade Israel, however a lot of the ships they’ve focused don’t have any connection to the battle.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Related Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed.
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