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October 7, 2023: Israel begins bombarding Gaza in retaliation to Hamas attacks
Israel resumes massive attacks on March 18, killing over 400 in a day — two months after ceasefire ending 15 months of relentless attacks began
Future governance of Gaza remains unclear as Trump suggests US takeover but Arab countries propose alternative plan, which UK, others back
Hamas and Israel exchange 25 hostages, bodies and 1,700 detainees in seven swaps
Over 50,000 Palestinians, 400 Israeli soldiers dead; nearly all of Gaza displaced
Multi-billion dollar challenges ahead to reconstruct decimated enclave
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has urged Hamas to release hostages still held in Gaza, calling it the main factor fuelling Israeli attacks on the territory, AFP reports.
“Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” Abbas said at a meeting in Ramallah.
“I’m the one paying the price, our people are paying the price, not Israel. My brother, just hand them over. “
France has expressed its support for the Arab plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency reports.
This announcement came during a joint press conference held in Baghdad by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.
Noël Barrot said that his country supports the Arab plan to rebuild Gaza, stressing that the prospect of a two-state solution is the only way to achieve peace and security.
He further emphasised, “A political solution must be found in Gaza and humanitarian aid must be allowed in.”
At least 39 bodies and 105 wounded people arrived at Gaza Strip hospitals over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said in its daily bulletin, Al Jazeera reports.
A number of victims remain under the rubble and on roads, unable to be reached by ambulances and civil defence crews.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 51,305 people and wounded 117,096.
Since March 18, when Israel resumed its bombing of the enclave, breaching a ceasefire, at least 1,928 have been killed.
Several bodies, wrapped in white shrouds, were laid at the morgue of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, an AFP journalist reports, after an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter killed 17 people.
The wounded were also being treated at the facility.
At the hospital, women were seen weeping over the body of a child wrapped in a white shroud. Grieving relatives carried the bodies of their loved ones for burial, including those of children, while women wept nearby.
“We want nothing more than for the war to end, so we can live like people in the rest of the world,” said Walid al-Najjar, a resident of Khan Younis after a strike in the area.
“We are a people who are poor, devastated — our lives are lost.”
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said its crew recovered charred bodies from a school-turned-shelter for displaced people, as Israeli strikes killed 17 people since dawn, AFP reports.
“Seventeen people have been killed since dawn,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, as Israel pounded the territory.
He said 11 of the victims, who included women and children, died in an air strike targeting the Yafa school building in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighbourhood.
“The school was housing displaced people. The bombing sparked a massive blaze, and several charred bodies have since been recovered,” he said.
Al Jazeera reports on the Israeli attack on the Moh El Dorra Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City overnight.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says the bombing caused “significant damage” to the hospital’s intensive care unit as well as its solar panel system.
The ministry condemned the attack, called for global action and said, “The occupation does not stop at preventing medicine and food from reaching the children of Gaza, and is also depriving them of life.”
Tens of thousands of children are now showing symptoms of malnutrition as Israel has been blocking food and medical supplies from entering the enclave for nearly two months, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Khalil Deqran has said, Al Jazeera reports.
Since March 2, the Israeli military has imposed the blockade on the Strip, insisting it is a tool to pressure Hamas into releasing all the remaining captives. It also resumed its offensive on Gaza on March 18.
Since the blockade began, all 25 UN-supplied bakeries making bread have been shut, with aid agencies warning that the population is on the precipice of starvation and mass disease.
Reuters and AFP have reported that a Hamas delegation is heading to Cairo for a new round of discussions aimed at securing the release of captives and ending Israel’s war on Gaza.
According to Reuters, two sources familiar with the mediation effort said the delegation would discuss a new offer which would include a truce for five to seven years following the release of all captives and an end to fighting.
The sources told the agency that Israel had yet to respond to a revamped long-term truce proposal.
Meanwhile, AFP quoted a Hamas official as saying that the delegation, led by the chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, “will meet with Egyptian officials to discuss new ideas aimed at reaching a ceasefire”.
The group is yet to comment publicly on the reports.
Germany, France and Britain have called on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of “an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death”, AFP reports.
“This must end”, their foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “We urge Israel to immediately restart a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians.”
“The Israeli decision to block aid from entering Gaza is intolerable,” the three ministers said.
They also criticised Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz for “recent comments politicising humanitarian aid” and described Israeli plans to remain in Gaza after the conflict as “unacceptable”.
“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” they said.
The foreign ministers also expressed “outrage at recent strikes by Israeli forces on humanitarian personnel, infrastructure, premises and healthcare facilities” in Gaza, adding, “Israel must do much more to protect the civilian population, infrastructure and humanitarian workers.”
The deadly Israeli strike that killed four Palestinians hit residential buildings along al-Nakheel Street in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic reports, quoting Gaza’s civil defence.
Several people also remain missing following the strike.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has issued a sharp condemnation of the Netanyahu-led government’s handling of the ongoing invasion of Gaza.
“It’s time to recognise the facts: this government is incapable of winning the war,” Lapid said in a post on X.
“They had a year and a half, received full support from the Americans, full support from the opposition, and the excuses are over.”
The Israeli army’s attack on Jaffa school is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on schools turned shelters for displaced people since the war on Gaza began, Al Jazeera reports.
United Nations experts have previously described Israeli attacks on civilian institutions such as schools and hospitals as crimes against humanity.
Here is a timeline of some of the attacks:
October 16, 2023 – An Israeli attack killed six people at a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) school serving as a shelter was struck in the al-Maghazi camp, in central Gaza.
December 19, 2023 – At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 30 wounded in Israeli air attacks on two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.
July 9, 2024 – An Israeli strike hit tents on the grounds of the al-Awda school in Abassan, near Khan Younis, killing at least 30 Palestinians.
August 4, 2024 – At least 30 people killed and many others injured in Israeli strikes on two United Nations-run schools, Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools, in the west of Gaza City.
September 11, 2024 – Israeli forces bomb al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 18 people, including six staff members of UNRWA.
April 3, 2025 – At least 33 Palestinians killed Israeli air attacks on three schools housing displaced people in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Hundreds of student protesters have gathered at the Yale’s Beinecke Plaza in protest against an upcoming talk by the far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at Shabtai, a Jewish society that is based near the university, Al Jazeera reports.
About 200 students attended the protest and set up eight tents at the plaza, it said, citing the Yale Daily News.
Videos on social media showed hundreds of students chanting, “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose, divest,” as they called on the university to oppose the siege in Gaza.
The crowds dispersed late on Tuesday evening with organisers promising to stage another protest later today.
Ben-Gvir, who advocates the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, is scheduled to speak at Shabtai tonight. His visit to New Haven, where Yale is located, is his first trip to the US since he became Israel’s national security minister.
US Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has called for an end to Israel’s blockade on food and humanitarian aid in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.
“End the blockade & suffering. Release all the hostages. End the war. No more Oct 7ths. Security, dignity, human rights & self-determination for all,” Van Hollen wrote in a post on X.
The senator was replying to chef Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that operates in Gaza to provide food for Palestinians, who said “food can never be used as a weapon of war”.
Pakistan and Turkiye have reaffirmed their support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state-run Radio Pakistan reports.
On an official visit to Ankara, they also called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders and Al Quds Al Sharif as the capital.
Erdogan expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s “resolute stance” on the Palestinian issue.
“Pakistan was one of the countries that gave [the] strongest reaction to genocide in Gaza,” the report quoted him as saying.
The two also “called for unhindered flow of humanitarian assistance in Gaza for the Palestinian people”, as per the report.
The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV is reporting more US raids on Yemen, according to Al Jazeera.
It said there were three attacks on the central province of Marib and four in the southwestern province of Taiz targeting the communications network in the al-Barh area of Maqbanah district.
Earlier in the morning, the channel reported four raids on the international airport in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and four on the northern Saada province.
The White House has brushed off criticism levied by dozens of US universities and colleges that accused the Trump administration of unprecedented “political interference” in American academia.
“The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in a position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law, and we expect all colleges and universities who are receiving taxpayer funds to abide by federal law,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Leavitt told reporters that Trump was “not going to tolerate illegal harassment and violence towards Jewish American students or students of any faith on our campuses across the country”. “We will be responding to the lawsuit in court,” she added.
The educational facilities — including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown — said in the letter that they spoke with “one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education”.
An Israeli attack has sparked a fire and killed at least 10 people while they slept at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.
Its correspondent on the ground said at least one child was among the victims.
The child’s body was burned beyond recognition, Al Jazeera says, citing images from the scene.
“Children are being burned while they sleep in the tents of the displaced,” Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif wrote.
“There are no safe areas, and no survivors of this genocide. Gaza City and its northern areas have been subjected to heavy Israeli shelling and artillery fire for hours.”
At least one person was killed and five others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a tent in the Al Mawasi camp in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
The camp, previously designed as a “safe zone” by the Israelis and home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, has come under repeated attack in recent days.
Dozens have been killed, Al Jazeera noted.
The Israeli government shared and then deleted a social media post offering condolences over the death of Pope Francis, without saying why, though an Israeli newspaper linked the decision to the late pontiff’s criticism of the conflict in Gaza.
The verified @Israel account had posted on Monday a message on social media platform X that read: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing,” alongside an image of the pope visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post quoted officials at the foreign ministry as saying that the pope had made “statements against Israel” and that the social media post had been published in “error”.
The foreign ministry, which social media platform X states on its website is linked to the verified @Israel account, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
An investigation by Israel’s public broadcaster KAN has revealed that the Israeli military fabricated the discovery of a tunnel in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, claiming the structure was, in fact, a shallow canal, Anadolu Agency reports.
Last August, the army published photos of an alleged tunnel in the demilitarised area along the border. “There was never a tunnel, but a canal covered in dirt,” KAN said.
The purpose of this lie “was to exaggerate the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor and delay a hostage deal”, it added.
According to KAN, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant backed the findings, saying, “It was not a tunnel, but rather an attempt to prevent a ceasefire agreement.”
Gallant clarified that the structure was only about one metre deep and was misleadingly presented to the public as a deep tunnel. “It was promoted to the public as a deep tunnel to prevent reaching a deal with Hamas,” he added.
Israeli cabinet ministers are expected to discuss a deadline with Hamas to reach an agreement to return the captives held in Gaza and the army’s next steps during a meeting later today, Al Jazeera reports quoting Israeli news outlet Ynet.
During tonight’s meeting, cabinet ministers will also discuss sending aid to Gaza.
