Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, noting that the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month war now exceeds 52,000.
Since Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment March 18, it has been carrying out daily waves of strikes. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah and now control around 50% of the territory.
Israel has also sealed off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days. Aid groups say supplies will soon run out and that thousands of children are malnourished. Some food kitchens say their supplies are exhausted.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Sunday for the third time since a ceasefire took hold in November. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest update, it said the Palestinian death toll now stands at 52,243. The toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.
The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its tally, but it says that most of those killed have been women and children. It says 117,600 people have been wounded in the war. The overall tally includes 2,151 dead and 5,598 wounded since Israel resumed the war last month.
Israeli strikes killed 17 more people after the ministry’s update. Eight of them, including three children and two women, were killed in a strike on a tent in the southern city of Khan Yunis, according to Nasser Hospital. A strike in the central city of Deir al Balah killed four people, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and another on a tent there killed four children and a man, the hospital said.
Israeli authorities say the renewed offensive and tightened blockade are aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and all the hostages are returned.
Hamas has said it will release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — only in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire reached in January.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Most have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and it blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings.
Israel strikes Lebanon again
Also Sunday, Israeli jets struck Beirut’s southern suburbs after issuing a warning about an hour earlier, marking the third Israeli strike on the area since a ceasefire took effect in late November.
A huge plume of smoke billowed over the area after the strike, which hit what looked like a metal tent situated between two buildings with three bombs, according to an Associated Press photographer on the ground and video circulating on social media. The photographer saw two burned and destroyed trucks inside the hangar. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In the warning, the Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah facilities in the Hadath area and urged residents to move at least 300 yards from the site before the strike. Two warning strikes followed.
Fighter jets were heard over parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Al-Jamous neighborhood, where gunfire was shot into the air to warn residents and urge them to evacuate, as families fled in panic.
During the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli drones and fighter jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel regards the area as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there. It has assassinated several of Hezbollah’s top leaders there, including chief Hassan Nasrallah last year.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, calling on the United States and France, as guarantors of the ceasefire, to “assume their responsibilities” and pressure Israel to halt its attacks. He warned that Israel’s continued actions “undermine stability” and risk exposing the region to serious security threats.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis posted on X that the latest Israeli strike “generated panic and fear of renewed violence among those desperate for a return to normalcy.” She urged all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the ceasefire understanding and the implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the war.
Sunday’s strike follows two earlier attacks on the capital’s southern suburbs, the first taking place March 28, when Israel also issued a warning, and the second on April 1, when an unannounced strike killed four people, including a Hezbollah official.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, recently warned that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if the Lebanese government didn’t act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.
Kassem also said that Hezbollah’s fighters won’t disarm as long as Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon and the Israeli air force regularly violates Lebanese airspace.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.
Earlier Sunday, a drone strike killed a man in the southern Lebanese village of Halta, according to the Health Ministry. In a post on X that included video of the strike, the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah member “where he was working to rebuild Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities in the area.”
Last week, the Lebanese government said 190 people have been killed and 485 wounded in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah officials and infrastructure.
The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the country’s southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory.
Shurafa, Magdy and Abou Aljoud write for the Associated Press. Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Magdy from Cairo and Abou Aljoud from Beirut. AP writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.