Closing summary
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.
Updated
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.
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.
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.
The US president, Donald Trump, has sent a letter to Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to jump-start nuclear talks. Trump is also putting pressure on Tehran over its support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels, after the US military launched an intense new campaign of airstrikes targeting the group.
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.”
Updated
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.
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.
Updated
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.
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.
Updated
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.”
Updated
UK foreign secretary David Lammy said it is “difficult to see” how Israel’s denial of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza “can be compatible with international humanitarian law”, reports the PA news agency.
Lammy said the Israeli government announced on 2 March that it would block all further aid deliveries until Hamas agreed to its terms on a ceasefire.
He told the Commons:
For weeks now supplies of basic goods and electricity have been blocked, leaving over half a million civilians once again cut off from clean drinking water and sparking a 200% surge in the price of some basic food stuffs; a boon to those criminals who use violence to control supplies.
As I told the house on Monday, this is appalling and unacceptable. Ultimately, of course, these are matters for the courts not governments to determine, but it’s difficult to see how denying humanitarian assistance to a civilian population can be compatible with international humanitarian law.
Though it’s important to say I could have been a little clearer in the house on Monday, our position remains that Israel’s actions in Gaza are a clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law.”
Gaza civil defence says 504 killed since Israel resumed strikes
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Thursday that 504 people had been killed since Israel resumed intense strikes on the Palestinian territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The total number of martyrs since the resumption of the aggression at dawn on Tuesday until noon today is 504 martyrs, including more than 190 children,” the agency’s spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Hamas armed wing says it fired rockets against Tel Aviv
Hamas’s armed wing claimed an attack with a barrage of rockets against Tel Aviv, in central Israel, on Thursday.
The group said the attack was in response to “the Zionist massacres against civilians”, reports Reuters.
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.
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, after Israel resumed military operations in the territory.
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, the statement added, according to Reuters.
Israeli military says it is conducting ground activity in northern Gaza
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun conducting ground activities in the northern Gaza Strip, along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia, reports Reuters.
The military resumed aerial strikes on targets in Gaza on Tuesday and launched ground operations on Wednesday, in effect ending a ceasefire with Hamas that had held since January.
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, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Araghchi told Iranian state television that while the letter purported to offer up opportunities, it was “actually more of a threat”, adding that Iran was now studying its contents and would respond “in the coming days”.
On 7 March, Trump said he had written to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for negotiations and warning of possible military action if Iran refused. Khamenei said the US invitation to talks was aimed at deceiving world public opinion by portraying the United States as ready to negotiate and Iran as unwilling.
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, reports AFP. Araghchi said the response “will be sent through the appropriate channels”, without elaborating.
On Wednesday, US news website Axios, citing a US official and other sources, reported that the letter included a “two-month deadline for reaching a new nuclear deal”.
Trump, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran, mirroring his approach during his first term. At the time, Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and reimposed sweeping economic sanctions.
Tehran adhered to the 2015 deal for a year after Washington’s withdrawal, but then began rolling back its own commitments. There were brief efforts to revive the agreement under the Joe Biden administration but these went nowhere, according to AFP.
Tehran has repeatedly ruled out direct talks with Washington while US sanctions remain in place.
On Thursday, Araghchi reiterated that Iran “definitely will not negotiate directly while facing pressure, threats, and increased sanctions”.
Updated
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 58 Palestinians and add to soaring child death toll
At least 58 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a third successive night of Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to medical officials at hospitals in the strip.
The death toll is expected to rise, as further casualties are dug from rubble in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
The timing of the strikes in the new Israeli offensive, which began on Tuesday, appears to have increased the proportion of women and children among the victims, with many sleeping when missiles strike.
A first wave of airstrikes on Tuesday shattered a two-month pause in hostilities and killed more than 400, according to the health ministry in Gaza, in what may have been the single bloodiest day of the 18-month conflict. The dead included 183 children and 94 women, Palestinian officials said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the most recent overnight strikes. Israeli media have reported that the new air offensive is aimed at senior political and military Hamas officials, and have identified some killed.
Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that Israel had attacked “dozens of terror targets and terrorists in Gaza, including Hamas commanders, to weaken their military and governmental capabilities and remove threats to Israel”.
Israel has also issued new warnings to Palestinians to evacuate areas in the north and east of Gaza to avoid being trapped by any fighting and has reoccupied the key Netzarim corridor, a strategic strip of land in the centre of the territory that divides it into northern and southern halves.
Updated
Germany reopened its embassy in Syria on Thursday, marking a revival of diplomatic ties under a new leadership in Damascus that is facing humanitarian and security problems as it tries to rebuild the country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock oversaw the official resumption of operations at the embassy during a visit to the Syrian capital, officials from her delegation said, according to Reuters.
Germany is home to a large Syrian population after an influx of refugees in the last decade, and has sought to send a message of cautious engagement with the new rulers while also urging respect for minorities’ rights.
The embassy has a small political team on the ground and will continue to expand its presence in line with the situation locally, the officials said.
Due to security concerns and limited space, visa and consular matters would continue to be handled from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, they added.
Baerbock first met Syria’s new de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa at the start of the year.
German officials said they could play more of a role in stabilising the country when located locally, adding that staff posted to Syria would develop diplomatic contacts and push for an inclusive political transition, reports Reuters.
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, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Five staff killed in Gaza in past few days, says Unrwa chief
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.
“In the past few days another five Unrwa staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement posted on X.
In his social media post on Thursday, Lazzarini said that the agency are “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”.
He described Palestinians, who face evacuation orders again after having previously been displaced, as being treated as “pinballs” since the start of the war.
Lazzarini wrote:
For nearly three weeks now, the Israeli authorities continue to ban the entry of any humanitarian aid or basic commercial supplies.
Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again and again going through their worst nightmare. An endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals.
No time left, we need now:
– A renewal of the ceasefire
– A dignified release of all the hostages in Gaza
– An unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies.”
The resumption of airstrikes has sent Palestinian residents again fleeing for their lives from homes they had begun to reinhabit among the ruins of the devastated territory.
Some Palestinians who tried to use the Salahuddin road said they saw cars come under fire from Israeli troops advancing towards Netzarim, reports Reuters. The fate of the passengers in the vehicles was unknown.
“Bulldozers protected by some tanks were heading to the west coming from the areas where they are stationed near the fence east of the Salahuddin road,” one taxi driver told Reuters, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
He said it had become clear the Israelis were advancing on Netzarim when Egyptian and foreign inspectors stationed there under the ceasefire abruptly withdrew.
Some residents turned to social media to report the disappearance of some relatives, while others reported cases to the International Committee of the Red Cross, reports Reuters.
Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, a Hamas official said mediators had stepped up their efforts with the two warring sides but added that “no breakthrough has yet been made”.
Hamas has yet to make clear threats to retaliate in response to the Israeli escalation. Asked by Reuters why the group had not yet responded, the Hamas official said it was “giving a chance for things to be contained”.
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 told Reuters on Thursday that militants, including from Hamas, had been put on high alert awaiting further instructions.
“Fighters and leaders of the resistance were also advised to avoid the use of cellular phones as a means of precaution,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.
Updated
Israel army bans traffic on Gaza’s main north-south route
The Israeli army has banned traffic on Gaza’s main north-to-south artery, a day after announcing renewed ground operations in the Palestinian territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Over the past 24 hours, IDF soldiers have begun a targeted ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone between the northern and southern parts,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.
Adraee added:
For your safety, movement along Salah al-Din road between the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, in either direction, is prohibited.”
Iran will consider both the threats and opportunities contained in a letter from US president Donald Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Germany’s foreign minister has warned Syrian authorities to ensure peace and security for all Syrians, two weeks after violent clashes that killed at least 1,500 civilians, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Speaking before a trip to Damascus, outgoing foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said the violence had undermined faith in the Syrian authorities. “Lots of them [Syrians] are scared that life in the future Syria will not be safe for all Syrians,” Baerbock said in a statement. She added:
The appalling bouts of violence two weeks ago have cost a massive amount of trust.”
Baerbock called for Syria’s transitional government, which took office after former president Bashar al-Assad fled the country in December, to ensure it controlled the “groups in its own ranks”. She added that it should put those responsible for the violence on trial and ensure peace and prosperity across Syria, which has been scarred by 14 years of civil war.
“This is the mammoth task facing the Syria’s transitional government under Ahmed al-Sharaa,” she said, according to AFP.
Baerbock said she would use her trip to tell Syria’s government that a “fresh start” between Europe and Germany on one side and Syria on the other was conditional on all Syrians enjoying freedom and security regardless of faith, gender or ethnicity.
Hamas says talks with mediators ongoing to halt Israeli offensive on Gaza
Hamas said that talks with mediators were ongoing on Thursday to halt the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which resumed two days ago, and to push Israel to abide by the ceasefire deal.
Hamas reiterated its commitment to the deal that was signed in January, reports Reuters.
Here are some of the latest images coming through from Gaza:
Early on Thursday, Israel said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed to have targeted Ben Gurion international airport.
“A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted ... prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” Israel’s military said.
In a statement, the Houthis said they had targeted Ben Gurion airport with a “hypersonic ballistic missile”, and again targeted an American aircraft carrier group in the Red Sea.
Israel launches ‘limited ground operation’ to retake Netzarim corridor
As we briefly mentioned earlier, Israeli forces have launched a “limited ground operation” to retake the Netzarim corridor, a newly widened road protected by fortified bunkers that divides Gaza and is seen as essential to controlling the devastated Palestinian territory. Jason Burke has this report from Jerusalem:
The move is a significant escalation of Israel’s new offensive in Gaza and came less than 36 hours after a massive wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400, including 183 children and 94 women, the health ministry there said.
A series of Israeli evacuation orders telling about 150,000 people in the north and east of Gaza to leave their homes to avoid being trapped in a combat zone suggested ground assaults in coming days, but seizure of the Netzarim corridor is the first major move to retake territory in Gaza since Tuesday’s airstrikes, which shattered a two-month-long pause in the hostilities with Hamas.
A private security company that had been securing checkpoints in the Netzarim corridor withdrew overnight and Israeli troops in armoured vehicles and tanks and on foot moved in at dawn on Wednesday, according to western aid officials.
The Israeli forces are believed to have reoccupied four fortified bases there and closed off all access. Travelling from north to south Gaza is now impossible, the officials said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has said the new offensive will continue until “total victory” is achieved over Hamas and the 59 remaining hostages held by the militant group are freed.
As part of the ceasefire deal agreed in January, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor.
Across Gaza, ordinary Palestinians – men and women, old and young, ill and healthy – have described their fear, despair and confusion after Israel’s return to violence in the past two days. My colleagues Jason Burke and Malak A Tantesh have this report:
“Our hopes rose but now we are back to square one,” Osama, a 40-year-old aid worker living in al-Mawasi, a coastal area designated as a “humanitarian zone” early in the conflict, which has since become known for severe overcrowding and poor sanitation.
In a statement on Wednesday, Israel’s defence minister warned the military was preparing to intensify its new offensive.
Israel Katz said: “Residents of Gaza, this is the last warning. Take the advice of the president of the United States. Return the hostages and remove Hamas, and other options will open up for you – including the possibility of leaving for other places in the world for those who want to.”
It was not immediately clear which statement Katz was referring to.
In al-Mawasi, tented encampments that had stretched along the entire shoreline emptied when the ceasefire was agreed. Almost half a million people headed back to the north of Gaza to try to rebuild their ruined homes. Many are now returning, pitching their tents once again on the dunes.
“The worst thing is not the deprivation or the uncertainty. It is that the hopes we had with the ceasefire are gone. We thought our pains were over but it has just started again,” said Osama.
Read the full piece here:
Israeli strikes have killed at least 58 people in Gaza overnight, local hospitals say
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 58 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight, according to three hospitals.
The Associated Press reports the strikes hit multiple homes in the middle of the night, killing men, women and children as they slept.
Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. Israel blamed the renewed fighting on Hamas because the militant group rejected a new proposal that departed from their signed agreement.
More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
These latest strikes come a day after Israeli ground troops advanced in Gaza for the first time since the ceasefire took hold in January, seizing part of a corridor separating the northern third of the territory from the south.
Israel, which has also cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, has vowed to intensify its operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 35 of whom are believed dead — and gives up control of the territory. The Trump administration, which took credit for brokering the ceasefire, says it fully supports Israel.
We’ll bring you the latest developments throughout the day.
