Foreign UN worker among hundreds killed in fresh Gaza strikes as Israel resumes war

CAIRO – 19 March 2025: An Israeli airstrike on a United Nations headquarters in central Gaza City on Wednesday killed a foreign national and injured five other foreign UN workers, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The victims were transferred to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah.

This attack is part of an extensive military strikes launched by Israeli forces early Tuesday in Gaza, shattering a ceasefire that had lasted nearly two months and paused a war that has claimed over 49,500 Palestinian lives since 2023.

In remarks on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces will strike Hamas with "increasing force," asserting that future ceasefire talks, facilitated by mediators, will "only take place under fire."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz indicated that the resumption of hostilities was due to Hamas' refusal to release captives held in the enclave, warning that “the gates of hell will open in Gaza” unless captives are freed.

Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israeli military, claimed that Israel carried out pre-emptive strikes in Gaza based on indications that Hamas was planning attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Hamas dismissed this assertion as “baseless and flimsy pretexts to justify [Israel’s] return to war.”

The renewed strikes have killed 436 Palestinians, including 183 children and 94 women, and have injured 678 others, most of whom are also women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Moreover, Hamas announced that one captive was killed and two others were injured in Israeli airstrikes.

The families of Israeli captives in Gaza called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages" amid the renewed strikes.

Hamas still holds 59 captives in Gaza, including at least 22 who are believed to be still alive.

OVERTURNING CEASEFIRE

Hamas stated that the recent Israeli strikes have overturned the ceasefire agreement, blaming Washington for the “massacres and killing of women and children in Gaza” due to the US's “unlimited political and military support” for the Israeli government.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview yesterday that Israel consulted President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the attacks on Gaza.

“As President Trump has made clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, and all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she stated.

This escalation comes as negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, and the US, who have been mediating talks between Hamas and Israel since the war broke out in October 2023, have intensified efforts to secure a continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza.

The ceasefire, which took effect on January 19, had halted a brutal Israeli war that devastated Gaza and left the population on the brink of famine.

Under the first phase of the agreement, which expired on 1 March, Hamas handed over 38 captives out of dozens more it still holds since the 7 October 2023 attacks in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has rejected Hamas’s proposal to transition to the second phase of the ceasefire as scheduled under the original agreement, which includes an end to the Israeli war, a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of all captives held there.

Instead, Israel and the US have proposed extending the first phase of the ceasefire in exchange for the release of more captives and continued delivery of aid into the enclave without an obligation to end the war.

Israel has halted aid deliveries to Gaza since 2 March and has stopped the power supply to the Strip to pressure Hamas into accepting the extension.