Israel-Gaza war: Israeli military says it is conducting ground activity in northern Gaza as dozens reported dead after Israeli strike – as it happened
Israeli military says it is conducting ground activities in northern Gaza Strip as health ministry reports 85 people killed by Israeli attacks overnight
At least 85 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health authorities say
At least 85 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed its bombing campaign and ground operations in the territory, Gaza’s health ministry said, according to Reuters.
A day after launching a new ground campaign in central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun conducting ground operations in the north of the territory, along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which had not yet retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its armed wing had fired rockets into Israel. The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. Asked for comment by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
The military has resumed its air assaults on Gaza since Tuesday and launched ground operations on Wednesday, in effect abandoning a ceasefire with Hamas that had held since January.
Volunteers and rescue workers use a bulldozer as to remove the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. Photograph: Mariam Dagga/AP
It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as a targeted ground 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, the main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead, reports Reuters.
Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.
A temporary first phase of the ceasefire ended at the start of this month. Hamas wants to move to an agreed second phase, under which Israel would be required to negotiate an end to the war and withdrawal of its troops, and Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israel has offered only a temporary extension of the truce, cut off all supplies to Gaza and says it is restarting its military campaign to force Hamas to free remaining hostages.
It is approaching 6pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut and 7.30pm in Tehran. This blog will be closing shortly but you can follow the Guardian’s latest Middle East coverage here.
Here is a summary of the latest developments as reported in today’s live blog:
At least 85 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed its bombing campaign and ground operations in the territory, Gaza’s health ministry said. A day after launching a new ground campaign in central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun conducting ground operations in the north of the territory, along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia. The Israeli army on Thursday warned residents of the southern Gaza town of Bani Suheila to evacuate their homes immediately ahead of a strike in their area
Hamas, which had not yet retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its armed wing had fired rockets into Israel. The group said the attack was in response to “the Zionist massacres against civilians”. Three projectiles were identified crossing from southern Gaza into Israel, the Israeli military said. “The IAF successfully intercepted one projectile and two additional projectiles fell in an open area,” it added.
Israel said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as a targeted ground 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, the main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead. Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.
Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. Asked for comment by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Qatar and Egypt, key mediators between Israel and Hamas, said on Thursday there was a need to boost joint efforts to implement the three phases of the Gaza ceasefire deal, a Qatari statement said. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke with Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty in a phone call to discuss coordination efforts and the latest developments in Gaza.
Rescuers pulled a 25-day-old baby girl alive from the rubble of her home in Gaza’s Khan Younis after an airstrike killed her parents and brother. “When we asked people, they said she is a month old and she has been under the rubble, since dawn,” Hazen Attar, a civil defence first responder said. The girl was identified as Ella Osama Abu Dagga. Only the girl’s grandparents survived the attack.
Israeli police deployed a water cannon and made several arrests on Thursday as protests against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to oust the head of the domestic intelligence service flared for a third consecutive day. Thousands of Israelis have joined anti-Netanyahu demonstrations with opponents of the move to sack Shin Bet head Ronen Bar joining forces with protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, while 59 Israeli hostages remain in the Palestinian territory. Protests were planned later outside the Kirya military headquarters complex in Tel Aviv.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, confirmed that a British national was injured in an Israeli attack on a UN compound in Gaza on Wednesday, as he said recent attacks had been an “appalling loss of life”. Lammy added that the attacks on Gaza on Tuesday night had caused the largest Palestinian death toll on a single day since the war began. Lammy also said it is “difficult to see” how Israel’s denial of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza “can be compatible with international humanitarian law” and that Hamas will “still be there” at the end of any military campaign by Israel and a political process is required.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said by Thursday noon that 504 people had been killed since Israel resumed intense strikes on the Palestinian territory on Tuesday. The agency’s spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, said in a statement that the total included more than 190 children.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that a recent letter sent by US president Donald Trump calling for new nuclear talks was “actually more of a threat”, and that Tehran would respond soon. Iran’s foreign ministry has said it will conduct a “thorough assessment” before responding to the letter which was delivered by a senior the United Arab Emirates diplomat on 12 March.
Five staff members of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, have been killed in the past few days, the agency’s commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday. “They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement posted on X. Lazzarini said that the agency were “fearing the worst is yet to come given the ongoing ground invasion separating the north from the south”. He added that “Israeli forces bombardment continues from air and sea for the third day”.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday called on the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) interim government of Syria to control extremist elements within its own ranks. Speaking in Damascus after the reopening of the German embassy, Baerbock said she had told the HTS leadership “that it is now up to them to turn words into action, that it is now up to them to bring extremist groups within their ranks under control and to hold those responsible for crimes to account”.
The US on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting one individual and several entities including a Chinese “teapot” oil refinery for purchasing and processing Iranian crude oil, the treasury department website showed. It was Washington’s fourth round of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales since president Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign including efforts to drive down the exports to zero.
A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for more than 880 days has been freed as France and the rest of Europe try to pursue negotiations with Tehran over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, gave no immediate details of what had led to Olivier Grondeau’s release, though it came on Nowruz, the Persian new year, when Iran has released prisoners in the past. The Iranian government did not immediately acknowledge Grondeau’s release.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that recent deadly US strikes on the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen was a “crime that must be stopped”. “This attack on the people of Yemen, on Yemeni civilians, is also a crime that must be stopped,” said Khamenei according to a video published on his website. Early on Thursday, Israel said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, as Houthi rebels claimed to have targeted Ben Gurion international airport.
Thousands of Israelis have been protesting against the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to resume airstrikes on Gaza. The protesters fear the resumption of the war will endanger the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Fifty-nine hostages are yet to be released, of whom 24 are believed to be alive.
The decision to resume the war has added fresh momentum to anti-government rallies, with protesters accusing Netanyahu’s administration of continuing the conflict for political reasons. The recent airstrikes have killed more than 400 Palestinians and shattered the ceasefire agreement.
Thousands of Israelis protest against resumption of Gaza war – video
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday called on the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) interim government of Syria to control extremist elements within its own ranks, reports Reuters.
Speaking in Damascus after the reopening of the German embassy (see 10.44am GMT), Baerbock said she had told the HTS leadership “that it is now up to them to turn words into action, that it is now up to them to bring extremist groups within their ranks under control and to hold those responsible for crimes to account”.
The US on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting one individual and several entities including a Chinese “teapot” oil refinery for purchasing and processing Iranian crude oil, the treasury department website showed, according to Reuters.
It was Washington’s fourth round of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales since president Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign including efforts to drive down the exports to zero. Trump aims to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding militant groups.
China is the largest importer of Iranian oil. The refinery that the US treasury targeted for sanctions is China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co Ltd, reports Reuters.
Tehran says its nuclear energy programme is for peaceful purposes, while western powers say its enrichment of uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade has no logical civilian applications.
Israeli police deployed a water cannon and made several arrests on Thursday as protests against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to oust the head of the domestic intelligence service flared for a third consecutive day.
Thousands of Israelis have joined anti-Netanyahu demonstrations with opponents of the move to sack Shin Bet head Ronen Bar joining forces with protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, while 59 Israeli hostages remain in the Palestinian territory.
“We’re very, very worried that our country is becoming a dictatorship,” Rinat Hadashi, 59, said in Jerusalem, according to Reuters. “They’re abandoning our hostages, they’re neglecting all the important things for this country.”
On Thursday, police and demonstrators clashed as hundreds marched along the road leading to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem, where police said dozens of protesters tried to break through security cordons.
Protests were planned later outside the Kirya military headquarters complex in Tel Aviv, reports Reuters.
A day earlier there were angry confrontations between protesters and counter-demonstrators, highlighting divisions that have deepened since Netanyahu returned to power at the head of a right-wing coalition at the end of 2022.
Israel’s cabinet is expected to meet on Friday to formally approve the dismissal of Bar, who has clashed with Netanyahu over a corruption investigation against aides in his office that the prime minister has called a politically motivated attack.
A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for more than 880 days has been freed as France and the rest of Europe try to pursue negotiations with Tehran over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, gave no immediate details of what had led to Olivier Grondeau’s release, though it came on Nowruz, the Persian new year, when Iran has released prisoners in the past.
Grondeau was met by his family and senior officials at Paris-Beauvais airport earlier this week.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs, posted a picture online of Grondeau smiling onboard what appeared to be a private jet. “We will tirelessly continue our efforts to ensure that all our compatriots still held hostage, including Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, are in turn released,” Barrot wrote.
Olivier Grondeau, the French citizen imprisoned in Iran for more than 880 days, is freed – video
Grondeau’s parents, Thérèse and Alain, speaking about the moment they learned of his release, told the Guardian they felt “huge relief that finally it was happening after years of waiting.
“We are happy to be reunited with our son. This is a great moment of joy. However, our thoughts at the moment are also with Cécile and Jacques … and their families,” they added, mentioning the other French hostages in Iran.
In going public with his detention in January, Grondeau alluded to the politics at play in his imprisonment. “You become a human who has been stocked away indefinitely because one government is seeking to exert pressure on another,” he said.
The Iranian government did not immediately acknowledge Grondeau’s release.
The Israeli army on Thursday warned residents of the southern Gaza town of Bani Suheila to evacuate their homes immediately ahead of a strike in their area, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“To all those present in the area marked as Bani Suheila, this is an early warning before a strike. Terrorist organisations are returning to and firing rockets from populated areas … For your safety, head west toward the known shelters immediately,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said Hamas will “still be there” at the end of any military campaign by Israel and a political process is required.
Conservative MP Martin Vickers acknowledged Israel’s “absolute right” to take action to recover the hostages before warning:
The continuing bombardment of Gaza of itself will not achieve that. Will he agree with me that the one thing it does achieve is it risks radicalising the younger generation to become the Hamas supporters of the future?”
Lammy replied in the House of Commons:
Well, that is the huge concern because we want to provide hope for these people and we want to provide an alternative to Hamas.
I just repeat that after 17 months of bombardment, if it was going to work it would have worked. It hasn’t worked and to go back to that, as night follows day, at the end of any military exercise Hamas will still be there and it’ll still come back to a political process.
So, let us continue with the political process and the ceasefire talks now. Let’s extend phase one to the end of the Ramadan-Passover season and let us work hard to get to phase two.”
Rescuers have pulled a 25-day-old baby girl alive from the rubble of her home in Gaza’s Khan Younis after an airstrike killed her parents and brother, reports the Associated Press (AP).
“When we asked people, they said she is a month old and she has been under the rubble, since dawn,” Hazen Attar, a civil defence first responder told the AP. “She had been screaming and then falling silent from time to time until we were able to get her out a short while ago, and thank God she is safe.”
The girl was identified as Ella Osama Abu Dagga. She had been born 25 days earlier, in the midst of a tenuous ceasefire that many Palestinians in Gaza had hoped would mark the end of a war that has devastated the territory, killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly its entire population.
Only the girl’s grandparents survived the attack. Killed were her brother, mother and father, along with another family that included a father and his seven children, reports the AP.
Ella Osama Abu Dagga, 25 days old, lies in a van after being pulled from the rubble following an Israeli army airstrike that killed her parents and brother in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, 20 March 2025. Photograph: Mariam Dagga/AP
It was not immediately clear who would take the rescued infant girl in, reports the AP.
Nearly 600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza, including more than 400 on Tuesday alone, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Health officials said most of the victims were women and children.
The strike that destroyed the infant girl’s home hit Abasan al-Kabira, a village just outside Khan Younis near the border with Israel, killing at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European hospital, which received the dead. It was inside an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.
The Israel military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it is deeply embedded in residential areas. The military did not immediately comment on the overnight strikes, according to the AP.
At least 85 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health authorities say
At least 85 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed its bombing campaign and ground operations in the territory, Gaza’s health ministry said, according to Reuters.
A day after launching a new ground campaign in central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun conducting ground operations in the north of the territory, along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which had not yet retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its armed wing had fired rockets into Israel. The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. Asked for comment by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
The military has resumed its air assaults on Gaza since Tuesday and launched ground operations on Wednesday, in effect abandoning a ceasefire with Hamas that had held since January.
Volunteers and rescue workers use a bulldozer as to remove the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. Photograph: Mariam Dagga/AP
It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as a targeted ground 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, the main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead, reports Reuters.
Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.
A temporary first phase of the ceasefire ended at the start of this month. Hamas wants to move to an agreed second phase, under which Israel would be required to negotiate an end to the war and withdrawal of its troops, and Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israel has offered only a temporary extension of the truce, cut off all supplies to Gaza and says it is restarting its military campaign to force Hamas to free remaining hostages.
British national injured in Israeli attack on Gaza on Wednesday, says UK foreign secretary
David Lammy has confirmed that a British national was injured in an Israeli attack on a UN compound in Gaza on Wednesday, as he said recent attacks had been an “appalling loss of life”, reports the PA news agency.
The UK foreign secretary told MPs:
Yesterday morning a UN compound in Gaza was hit, I can confirm to the house that a British national was among the wounded.
Our priority is supporting them and their family at this time.”
Lammy added that the attacks on Gaza on Tuesday night had caused the largest Palestinian death toll on a single day since the war began.
He said:
A number of Hamas figures were reportedly killed, but it’s been reported that over 400 Palestinians were killed in missile strikes and artillery barrages. The majority of them were women and children.
This appears to have been the deadliest single day for Palestinians since the war began. This is an appalling loss of life, and we mourn the loss of every civilian.”
