Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to local health officials. Hours later, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties, in the first such attack since Israel broke their ceasefire.
Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January. Israeli bombardments in the past three days have killed at least 592 people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the records department at the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said it was again enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City. Palestinians were not being ordered to leave northern Gaza but can no longer enter, the military said, and are only allowed to move south on foot using the coastal road. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to what remains of their homes in the north during the ceasefire.
placed from Gaza’s Shujayea and Beit Hanoun neighbourhoods following Israel’s new forced evacuation orders.
Families are cramped together in makeshift tents in Gaza City’s Yarmouk Stadium.
Displaced people there say the conditions are desperate.
Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reports from Yarmouk Stadium, where families are being forced to live in flimsy tents.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 85 people, mostly women and children. The ministry’s records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Indonesian Hospital said it received 19 bodies after strikes in Beit Lahiya, near Gaza’s northern border, which was heavily destroyed and largely depopulated earlier in the war.
“It was a bloody night for the people of Beit Lahiya,” said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency service in northern Gaza, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble. “The situation is catastrophic.”
One of the strikes early Thursday hit the Abu Daqa family’s home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village outside Khan Younis near the border with Israel. It was in an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.
The strike killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European Hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.
UNRWA chief says homes in occupied West Bank ‘systematically destroyed’
Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), has warned of a “deepening humanitarian crisis” unfolding in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces have been intensifying a crackdown in the northern West Bank, targeting refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes.
Homes and other civilian infrastructure have been “systematically destroyed”, Lazzarini said in a post on X.
“Just yesterday, the Israeli Authorities issued new demolition orders for another 66 buildings in Jenin camp. Dozens of houses have already been destroyed in the camp over the past two months,” he said.
“These demolition orders must not be carried out. Tens of thousands of Palestine Refugees are at risk of renewed long term displacement with Jenin Camp permanently altered.”
A deepening humanitarian crisis in the #WestBank with homes + other civilian infrastructure systematically destroyed.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 20, 2025
Just yesterday, the Israeli Authorities issued new demolition orders for another 66 buildings in #Jenin camp.
Dozens of houses have already been destroyed in the…
‘There remains no military solution to this conflict’: UK foreign secretary
The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has condemned Israel’s resumption of hostilities in Gaza.
In a video statement posted on X, Lammy called for an immediate return to a ceasefire. “More bloodshed is in no one’s interest,” he said.
He called on Hamas to release all the captives and on Israel to “abide by international law and to lift the unacceptable restrictions on aid and demand the protection of civilians”.
“There remains no military solution to this conflict,” he added. “A two-state solution remains the only path to a just and lasting peace.”
We urgently want to see a return to a ceasefire.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) March 20, 2025
Diplomacy is the only way to achieve security for both Israelis and Palestinians.
My statement on the situation in Middle East this morning: pic.twitter.com/Sd4v9aURUg
Israeli ground forces are also pushing into Gaza near the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah, the military said Thursday. The operations come a day after Israel moved to split Gaza in two by retaking the strategic Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south.
Houthi also launched two missiles at Israel, one early Thursday morning and another in the evening, the military said. Both were intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, according to the army, and no injuries were reported. Air raid sirens rang out and exploding interceptor rockets were heard in Jerusalem. There have been three such attacks since the United States began a new campaign of airstrikes against the Houthis earlier this week.
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