Rights and Accountability 18 March 2025
The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are brought to the morgue at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, 18 March.
APA imagesIsrael launched intensive attacks on Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 400 Palestinians and injuring more than 560, the health ministry in the territory said later in the day.
The ministry said that more victims are still under the rubble.
Entire families were massacred in the strikes, according to the government media office in Gaza.
Defense for Children International-Palestine said that at least 174 children were among the dead.
“Today marks one of the largest one-day child death tolls in Gaza in history,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a program director with the children’s rights group.
“Israeli forces have signed a death warrant for Palestinian children in Gaza as they carry out nonstop attacks, continue to destroy civilian infrastructure and prevent any humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in need. This is nothing short of genocide,” he added.
Israel also ordered the evacuation of areas of eastern Gaza near Jabaliya in the north and Khan Younis in the south.
The strikes appear to signal Israel’s withdrawal from the negotiations process to permanently end the war in Gaza.
Hamas remains the de facto ruling authority in Gaza despite Israel’s stated aim of destroying it during the offensive beginning in October 2023. Hamas officials have accused Israel of repeatedly violating the fragile ceasefire that came into effect on 19 January.
The first phase of the ceasefire, lasting 42 days, largely brought an end to 15 months of Israeli attacks that killed at least 48,000 people in Gaza since October 2023, including more than 18,000 children. The terms of the second phase of the deal had not yet been agreed upon by Israel and Hamas.
The ceasefire was supposed to allow for a surge in humanitarian aid. But Israel ordered the closure of Gaza’s crossings more than two weeks ago, creating a new food crisis in the territory, where people have endured deprivation of life essentials such as electricity, fuel, adequate food and clean water since October 2023.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military after the ceasefire took effect, including nine people, three of them journalists, who were slain in a drone strike targeting a relief team in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, on Saturday.
“It felt like Armageddon”
Israel pounded Gaza early Tuesday while people were asleep or preparing the suhour meal that is eaten before dawn ahead a day of Ramadan fasting.
“It felt like Armageddon,” according to Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American doctor currently working at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
People reported that the attacks were similar in intensity to those of the first days of the offensive that followed the Hamas attack on Israeli military bases and colonies near Gaza’s periphery on 7 October 2023.Most of the estimated 250 people captured in the Hamas attack have been released during prisoner exchanges that commenced during a week-long truce in November 2023 and following the declaration of a ceasefire in January this year.
Many Palestinians who were displaced during the 15 months of attacks that preceded the ceasefire have streamed back to their largely destroyed neighborhoods in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, and the north. With the absence of alternative shelter, many people were living in damaged and structurally unsound buildings.
Much of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed during the Israeli offensive, during which the military targeted and badly damaged or destroyed many of Gaza’s hospitals, which struggled to cope with the casualties from the new attacks on Tuesday.The government media office in Gaza said that the lack of fuel prevented the transfer of victims to hospital. The office said the Israeli escalation “comes amid the collapse of the health system” in the territory due to the Israeli siege, which has prevented the entry of medical supplies and humanitarian aid.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said that he ordered the attacks on Tuesday and claimed that Hamas had repeatedly refused to release the remaining captives in Gaza.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu added.
But an advocacy group representing family members of the captives stated that by attacking Gaza, “the Israeli government has chosen to abandon the hostages.”
“We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones,” the group added.
Hamas in turn accused Israel of attempting to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing the remaining captives in Gaza “to an unknown fate.”
Hamas officials killed
The renewed attacks on Gaza may be another means by which Israel is attempting to squeeze concessions out of Hamas.
Several government officials in Gaza were killed along with members of their families in the Israeli strikes on Tuesday.
The government media office in Gaza stated that Issam al-Daalis, Mahmoud Abu Watfa, Ahmad al-Hitta and Bahjat Abu Sultan, who held various offices in Gaza’s administration and ministries, were among those killed.
Some of those officials were also among the several members of Hamas’ political bureau reportedly killed in the attacks, according to news reports.
Abu Hamza, the spokesperson for the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad faction, was also reported killed.
Palestinians inspect the damage at al-Tabaeen school in Gaza City following Israeli airstrikes on 18 March.
APA imagesAn unnamed Israeli source, described as familiar with discussions held by Israeli Netanyahu’s cabinet, told the Haaretz newspaper that the attacks were aimed at undercutting Hamas’ ability to administer Gaza.
The escalation in Gaza coincides with a new US military offensive against Ansar Allah in Yemen. The Yemeni group, also known as the Houthis, recently announced the resumption of its naval blockade in the Red Sea, which it had suspended following the enactment of the ceasefire in Gaza in January.
Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said on Tuesday that the group had hit an Israeli airbase with a hypersonic missile and that it would expand its “scope of targets” unless the aggression in Gaza ends.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday night that the administration of President Donald Trump was consulted ahead of the Israeli strikes.
“As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” Leavitt said.
“Blatant deception”
While an Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the renewed offensive on Gaza was a preemptive measure to thwart new attacks being planned by Hamas, some Israeli commentators pointed to domestic motivations for Netanyahu’s decision to strike.
On Sunday, Netanyahu announced his intention to sack Ronen Bar, the director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. The Shin Bet is probing leaks from the prime minister’s office and ties between officials in that office and Qatar.
Netanyahu’s government has also declared its intention to fire Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s attorney general, a move seen as part of a wider effort to strengthen the prime minister’s control of state institutions, including the military.
On Tuesday, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right leader of Israel’s Jewish Power faction, stated that his party had decided to rejoin Netanyahu’s fragile governing coalition. Ben-Gvir and other ministers from his party had quit the coalition in protest of the ceasefire deal.
Ben-Gvir and far-right allies like Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and head of the Religious Zionism party, have advocated for the depopulation of Gaza and its recolonization with Jewish settlements.
The Euro-Med Monitor, a human rights group based in Geneva, blamed international inaction for the escalation on Tuesday.
Ramy Abdu, the head of Euro-Med Monitor, said that his sister and her young children were killed in the Israeli strikes.
“Any attempt to disguise these crimes as security concerns or military necessities is nothing more than blatant deception meant to conceal the crime of genocide,” Euro-Med Monitor stated.Euro-Med Monitor added that “these actions are clearly aimed at eradicating the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.”
The International Court of Justice is considering a genocide complaint brought by South Africa against Israel and has issued orders against any actions “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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