The number of people killed in Gaza in the last 18 months has now passed 50,000, the Health Ministry in the territory announced on March 23.
Israel has mounted an intense air and land campaign in Gaza since it was attacked in October 2023 by Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.
The latest death toll figures came after a cease-fire agreed in January broke down in recent days.
Fresh Israeli attacks overnight killed 26 people, including a Hamas political leader, Salah Bardawil, and his wife, according to the group. Reports from Gaza on March 23 said Israeli warplanes were continuing to pound targets, with Rafah and Khan Younis among the places hit.
Israel issued warnings to local people to evacuate areas of Rafah. Civilians said they were fleeing “under fire.”
The latest attacks follow an Israeli security cabinet decision on March 22 to establish an office for organizing “voluntary” departure of Palestinians from Gaza.
This appears to align with statements by US President Donald Trump on removing much or all of the Palestinian population from the area and redeveloping it under US control.
The idea has been widely condemned internationally. France said it would be a “serious violation of international law” while the idea has provoked outrage in Arab countries.
"In the Middle East, it's seen as unworkable, undesirable, illegal," Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told RFE/RL in February.
The latest phase in the decades-long Middle East conflict began with the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which it killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages to Gaza. Dozens remain in Hamas’ hands.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said a total of 50,021 Palestinians had been killed in the subsequent war and more than 113,000 wounded. Israel’s military response has also displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Hamas has accused Israel of unilaterally breaking the mid-January cease-fire agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the renewed Israeli military action was due to Hamas’s failure to hand over the remaining hostages and rejection of new cease-fire proposals.
"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," he said. Earlier, Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and other supplies to Gaza.
Trump on March 5 warned Hamas that there would be “hell to pay” if Hamas does not immediately release all hostages after the White House confirmed that it had conducted secret talks with the extremist group.
Along with the strikes against Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli military also said this week that it conducted air strikes in southern Lebanon and southern Syria.