At least 91 more Palestinians killed in Gaza as Israel scraps ceasefire
- 20 Mar 2025
At least 91 more Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed bombing and ground operations, the enclave's health ministry said, effectively ditching a two-month-old ceasefire.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
"War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?" said Samed Sami, 29, who fled Shejaia to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground.
A day after sending tanks into central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the densely populated enclave, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya.
Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern sections of the Gaza Strip.
With talks having failed to bridge differences over terms to extend the ceasefire, the military resumed its air assaults on Gaza with a massive bombing campaign on Tuesday before sending soldiers in the day after.
HUNDREDS DEAD
It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as an operation to expand a buffer zone separating the northern and southern halves of Gaza, known as the Netzarim corridor.
Israel ordered residents to stay away from the Salahuddin road, Gaza's main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead.
Tuesday's first day of resumed airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old conflict, with scant let-up since then.
'WE DON'T WANT DEATH'
The ceasefire had allowed Huda Junaid, her husband and family to return to the site of their destroyed home to camp out in the ruins. But they were now forced to flee again, packing their few remaining belongings into a donkey cart and searching for a new place to pitch their tent near a school.
"We don't want war, we don't want death. Enough, we are fed up. There are no longer children in Gaza, all of our children are dead, all of our relatives are dead," she said.
Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, a Hamas official said mediators had stepped up efforts with the two warring sides but no breakthrough had yet come.
Some residents said there were no signs yet of preparations by Hamas on the ground to resume fighting. But an official from one militant group allied to Hamas, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters on Thursday that fighters, including from Hamas, had been put on alert awaiting further instructions. Fighters had also been told to stop using mobile phones.
Reuters