'Bodies and limbs on the ground' after Israeli strikes kill more than 400 people in Gaza
by David MacRedmond, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/david-macredmond/ · TheJournal.ieLAST UPDATE | 8 hrs ago
OVERNIGHT STRIKES BY Israel in Gaza have killed more than 400 people, shattering what was left of an already precarious ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry said the bodies of 413 people had been received by hospitals, adding “a number of victims are still under the rubble”.
UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bollen, speaking to the AFP news agency in southern Gaza, said the deaths include “dozens and dozens of children, with many more children wounded”.
Palestinians are stricken with “abject fear” again, the United Nations humanitarian chief has said.
Amnesty International described the attack as “a desperately dark day for humanity” while Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) general director said the organisation’s healthcare workers in Gaza were “horrified” by the number of casualties.
Three senior members of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip were killed in the strikes, according to a statement by the group.
The head of its government in the Gaza Strip, Essam al-Dalis, interior ministry head Mahmud Abu Watfa and Bahjat Abu Sultan, director-general of the internal security service, were among those killed.
Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of upending the ceasefire agreement and exposing the hostages who remain in Gaza “to an unknown fate”.
In a statement, it called on mediators to hold Israel “fully responsible for violating and overturning the agreement”.
Israel had already violated the ceasefire agreement that took effect on 19 January, killing more than 100 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. Israel also failed to allow the agreed amount of aid into the Gaza Strip, before suspending deliveries completely just over two weeks ago.
The Israeli actions did not lead to a resumption of all-out war but last night’s strikes were a major escalation.
Israel and the United States, which approved the bombing, have blamed Hamas for not agreeing to a “bridge” agreement that would have involved releasing more hostages.
The extension proposal, which was not part of the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas in negotiations in Qatar, was made by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said last night’s bombing was not a “one-day attack”.
“We found ourselves at an impasse – no hostage being released and no military action… We struck Hamas and additional terror targets in Gaza. This is not a one-day attack. We will continue the military operation in the coming days,” Saar told US pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s Board of Directors in Jerusalem, according to a statement.
“Hamas bears total responsibility for the war, and for the resumption of hostilities,” a US State Department spokesperson said.
“Every death would have and could have been avoided had Hamas accepted the ‘bridge’ proposal that SE Witkoff offered last Wednesday.”
Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war on the Gaza Strip, vowed to continue fighting, a statement from his office said this morning:
Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.
In an evening address, the Israeli premier said that “from now on, negotiations will take place only under fire,” before adding: “Military pressure is essential for the release of additional hostages”.
The attacks have raised fears that war could resume on a number of fronts.
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The Israeli military said this evening it had intercepted a rocket launched from Yemen, where the Houthis had promised to resume attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea because of Israel’s renewed siege of the devastated Gaza Strip.
‘Bodies and limbs on the ground’
The Red Cross said many medical facilities in the Gaza Strip were “overwhelmed” with casualties.
“What we heard from Palestine Crescent colleagues this morning is that many medical facilities are literally overwhelmed across Gaza,” Red Cross spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa told reporters in Geneva.
Mourners cried over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead this morning following the strikes.
“They opened the fire of hell again on Gaza,” said Ramez al-Amarin, 25, a displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southeast of Gaza City.
“There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them,” he added.
“There is bombing everywhere, today I felt that Gaza is a real hell,” said Jihan Nahhal, 43, a mother living in northwest Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.
Nahhal said she heard Israeli air force planes flying overhead as she prepared her pre-dawn meal – the bombardment came with Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan in which they fast during daylight hours.
“Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war,” she said.
“Everywhere there was screaming and fires raging, and most of them were children.”
“It is a real war of extermination,” she added, condemning Israel.
Israel has been accused of genocide in Gaza by South Africa in a case at the International Court of Justice. The court issued injunctions against Israel last year, saying it must do everything it can to “prevent the commission of all acts within the scope” of the Genocide Convention.
Families of the hostages who remain in Gaza have accused Netanyahu of placing the remaining 59 captives, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, “at grave risk”.
In a post on X, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said organised a protest in Jerusalem and were “calling on the people of Israel to stand with them”.
“There is nothing more urgent than this! With each passing day, the danger to the hostages grows. Military pressure could further endanger their lives and complicate efforts to bring them home safely.”
The strikes came as Netanyahu faces mounting domestic pressure to bring the hostages home.
Condemnation
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has strongly condemned the attacks, noting that they have killed ‘hundreds’ of civilians.
“I call on all parties to respect the ceasefire and hostage release deal, and to return to talks,” he said.
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“For the sake of the civilians in Gaza, who have already endured unimaginable hardships, there must be an urgent end to all hostilities.”
Speaking to reporters in New York, where he is on a trade mission, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris described the attack as “utterly appalling”, and said he doesn’t want to see attempts “to justify a return to violence”.
“Where our focus needs to stay here is on the immediate need to see a cessation of violence, and we had a process in place to try and move that forward.”
He said he wants to see humanitarian aid flow into the region, and leaders use a political process to create lasting peace.
Sinn Fein’s spokesperson on foreign affairs Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire condemned the attacks as an appalling breach of the ceasefire.
“This is yet another profound breach by Israel, not only of the ceasefire, but of humanitarian norms,” he said, claiming that the strikes targeted refugee camps and other civilian locations.
Separately, UN chief Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by the attack and urged that a ceasefire be respected, a UN spokesman said.
The Egyptian foreign ministry condemned Israel for the air strikes, calling them a “flagrant violation” of the ceasefire, while Turkey’s president has called Israel “a terror state”.
“The Zionist regime has once again shown that it is a terror state that feeds on the blood, lives and tears of the innocent with its brutal attacks on Gaza last night,” Erdogan said at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner.
Amnesty International described the attack as “a desperately dark day for humanity” while Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) general director said the organisation’s healthcare workers in Gaza were “horrified” by the number of casualties.
“Israel’s genocide and its unlawful air strikes have already caused unprecedented humanitarian suffering in Gaza,” an Amnesty spokesperson said.
“Today, we are back to square one. Since 2 March, Israel has re-imposed a total siege on Gaza blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid, medicine, and commercial supplies, including fuel and food, in flagrant violation of international law.
“Israel has also cut off electricity to Gaza’s main operational desalination plant. And today the Israeli military has once again started issuing mass ‘evacuation’ orders displacing Palestinians.”
MSF general director Claire Magone said that the people of Gaza would not be able to withstand a resumption of all-out hostilities and bombardment.
“Their hopes of recovering at least part of their previous lives are being shattered,” she said.
With reporting by PA, AFP and Eoghan Dalton
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