Netanyahu signalling war in Gaza to continue indefinitely

The Israeli government appears bent on continuing the war in Gaza until two main objectives are achieved, Luciano Zaccara, associate professor at Qatar University, has told Al Jazeera.

While the first objective – the release of the captives – was mostly achieved via negotiations, the second objective – destroying Hamas – was always the priority for Netanyahu, Zaccara said.

The reappointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister after he quit over the ceasefire deal was a clear signal that “there will be no more negotiations and no more ceasefire”, the analyst said.

“The fact that the ceasefire was signed was a defeat for many in Netanyahu’s coalition,” Zaccara added. “The [captives] had already been sacrificed. What they want is the war.”

Hamas says talks with mediators under way to stop Israeli attacks

In a statement cited by the Palestinian Information Center, Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said the group remains committed to the original ceasefire framework signed in January and is engaging with mediators to “compel” Israel to adhere to it and halt its renewed assaults.

“We are working with mediators to spare our people from war permanently” and ensure that Israel withdraws from Gaza, al-Qanou said.

He also called for the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to take “urgent action” on behalf of Palestinians to “prevent starvation and lift the siege”.

Reuters reported, quoting an unnamed Hamas official, that “no breakthrough has yet been made”.

Asked why the group had not yet responded to the Israeli escalation, the Hamas official said it was “giving a chance for things to be contained”, the agency reported.

Arab-Islamic committee calls on global community to fulfil ‘moral and legal’ duties on Gaza

The Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Gaza has condemned the resumption of the war in Gaza and the “direct bombardment of areas populated by unarmed civilians”, saying it constitutes “an escalation that increases the threat of a wider conflict in the region”.

In a statement published by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, the committee called on the international community to “assume its moral and legal responsibilities and to immediately intervene to put pressure on Israel (the occupying power) to immediately cease its aggression and violations”.

The committee was formed in November 2023 by the governments of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Turkiye, Indonesia, Nigeria and Palestine, as well as the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Hamas gives update on ceasefire negotiations as Israel bombards Gaza

Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, has told Al Jazeera, “We received in the last few days before the brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip a new American proposal from Mr Witkoff [the US envoy] through the mediators.”

Naim added this was a “bridging proposal which will see the exchange of prisoners for a return to the condition’s first phase, a temporary ceasefire, the opening of borders and aid into Gaza and engaging in second-phase negotiations”.

Naim said the parties were close to a breakthrough until Netanyahu decided to launch the latest attacks for his “internal political calculations” to appease the far right.

Contact has nevertheless continued in the last two days through the mediators, Naim said, despite Israel relaunching the war against Gaza.

Joint efforts needed to boost three phases of ceasefire: Qatar, Egypt

Qatar and Egypt, the key mediators between Israel and Hamas, have said there is a need to boost joint efforts to implement the three phases of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The Qatari statement came as Israel continued its punishing military attacks in the besieged enclave.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Jassim 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.

Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital struggles to respond to ‘massive number’ of casualties: Director

Marwan al-Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, has said the medical facility was facing “catastrophic conditions” amid severe shortages of fuel, medicines, oxygen and other supplies.

“North Gaza had a difficult night, and we are facing difficulty in responding to the needs of the massive number of injured and wounded,” he told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Overnight, 82 injured people were brought to the hospital, along with 43 bodies, the director added. Ventilators and other life-saving equipment have been damaged and are largely unusable.


_{Palestinians gather as bodies of victims of Israeli overnight air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip are loaded in the back of a vehicle, in front of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya on March 20}

Israeli army begins ground operation in northern Gaza Strip

The Israeli army has started a ground operation in the area of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, it said in a statement.

Hamas positions were attacked prior to launching the ground operation, it added.

At least 95 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since dawn

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that at least 95 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces since dawn today.

US, Israel request UN Security Council meeting focusing on Gaza captives

A UN Security Council meeting focusing on captives held in Gaza has been requested by Israel and the US, Al Jazeera correspondents at the UN headquarters in New York have said.

Israeli ambassador Danny Danon said former captive Eli Sharabi was expected to open today’s session with a testimony.

Sharabi met earlier this month with US President Donald Trump in the White House, and with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street.

Released captive Eli Sharabi opens UNSC meeting

Released Israeli captive Eli Sharab has addressed the UN Security Council meeting called for by the US and Israel to discuss the fate of 59 captives still in Gaza.

Sharab said he was held in captivity for 491 days and was a “shadow of my former self” after his wife and daughters were killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

He called Hamas “terrorist monsters” and claimed to have seen humanitarian aid being stolen by the group in Gaza. “Hamas steals from civilians, blocks aid from reaching those who really need it,” he told the UNSC.

Hamas has repeatedly denied taking aid, blaming any looting on criminal gangs.

Hamas responsible for resumption of war in Gaza, US tells UNSC

US Ambassador Dorothy Shea has told the UN Security Council that Hamas “bears the sole responsibility for the war and the resumption of hostilities” in Gaza, after a failure to respond to President Donald Trump’s warnings.

“Trump has been clear: Hamas must release all hostages now or there will be hell to pay,” Shea said.

She added that while “fighting could end tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages and laid down its weapons,” the group “refused time and time again to accept proposals to extend the ceasefire.”

“We must recognise Hamas for what it is: a savage terrorist organisation that purposefully committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Shea said.

Hamas refused attempts by the US and Israel to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, but remained committed to implementing the three phase deal in its original form, all had agreed on, which required moving to the second phase of the agreement that included the release of more captives and a permanent end to the war.

As always claiming the opposite of reality. Flat out lying to the UNSC is standard now for the USA.

Hamas offers handover of all hostages to Israel if next phase of ceasefire agreed
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/19/hamas-hostages-israel-gaza-ceasefire-agreement-second-phase

Hamas willing to accept 'any proposal' in exchange for ceasefire resumption - report
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-846811

Hamas has allegedly told mediators that they are willing to accept any proposal to release Israeli hostages if it includes a resumption of a ceasefire, according to UK-based Qatari news organization Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's report on Thursday.

The Hamas sources also claimed that the terror group did not reject US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's ceasefire-hostage framework but rather accepted it on the condition that it would lead to a resumed ceasefire.

Cases of torture reported in Israel’s Ganot prison: Monitor

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has received reports of torture in southern Israel’s Ganot prison (formerly known as Nafha and Rimon prisons), which it said were part of a broader policy of abuse within Israeli jails.

The group said Israeli officers handcuffed detainees tightly, blocking the flow of blood to the hands as a mean of torture and fired sound bombs within the compound.

It added that “crackdowns in various prisons are being carried out at an increasing pace to tighten control over prisoners and torture them”.

Israel’s total blockade of Gaza is likely breaking international law: UK foreign secretary

Britain’s top diplomat, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, has told the House of Commons “it’s difficult to see how denying humanitarian assistance to a civilian population can be compatible with international humanitarian law”.

Although he said it’s for courts not governments to decide, Lammy said it was “appalling and unacceptable” for Israel to block aid and electricity to Gaza.

He said Israel’s actions “reinforce” the UK decision last year to suspend some arms exports to the country.

Earlier this week, Lammy said Israel had broken international law, but later reverted to the government’s longstanding position that Israel’s actions are “at clear risk” of breaching the law.

The ICJ already ruled on aid over a year ago. The court decided, governments continue to ignore the rulings of the ICJ.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/israel-defying-icj-ruling-to-prevent-genocide-by-failing-to-allow-adequate-humanitarian-aid-to-reach-gaza/

One month after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient humanitarian assistance and enabling basic services, Israel has failed to take even the bare minimum steps to comply, Amnesty International said today.

The order to provide aid was one of six provisional measures ordered by the Court on 26 January (2024) and Israel was given one month to report back on its compliance with the measures. Over that period Israel has continued to disregard its obligation as the occupying power to ensure the basic needs of Palestinians in Gaza are met.

Israel’s demolitions changing map of occupied West Bank

Israel is conducting one of the largest demolitions in years in the West Bank and has been very clear about its intention to eliminate those refugee camps.

The Jenin refugee camp will no longer exist and the Tulkarem refugee camp will be no different. Over the past weeks, we’ve seen the displacement of over 40,000 Palestinians from those two camps after watching their homes being torn to the ground.

This has a very dire psychological impact on Palestinians across the West Bank, who fear they are next.

In the meantime, we are getting reports that at least eight flights were disrupted around Ben Gurion Airport. The airlines that had resumed operating will be holding a meeting with the Israeli civil aviation authority later this afternoon to discuss safety measures.

This is all happening as the Israeli government had assured the Israeli public that bombarding Gaza was the only way to ensure security.

The ICJ also ruled over the Westbank last July, also ignored

https://www.icj-cij.org/node/204176

THE COURT,
(1) Unanimously, Finds that it has jurisdiction to give the advisory opinion requested;
(2) By fourteen votes to one, Decides to comply with the request for an advisory opinion;
(3) By eleven votes to four, Is of the opinion that the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful;
(4) By eleven votes to four, Is of the opinion that the State of Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible;
(5) By fourteen votes to one, Is of the opinion that the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(6) By fourteen votes to one, Is of the opinion that the State of Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(7) By twelve votes to three, Is of the opinion that all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(8) By twelve votes to three, Is of the opinion that international organizations, including the United Nations, are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(9) By twelve votes to three, Is of the opinion that the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly, which requested this opinion, and the Security Council, should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Israeli forces strike villages in southern, eastern Lebanon

Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, targeting a string of villages, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reports.

NNA said Israeli warplanes fired four rockets targeting an area between the towns of Jbaa, Zhalta, and Snaya near the Jezzine area in southern Lebanon.

In the Bekaa Valley’s Baalbek district in eastern Lebanon, NNA reported that Israeli warplanes targeted an area in the village of Janta.

A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah began on November 27, but both sides have accused the other of repeated violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed scores of people since the deal took effect.

Houthi media says new US attacks on Yemen

Al Masirah TV TV, closely associated with the Yemeni rebel group, says four US air raids hit the al-Kathib area of the port city of Hodeidah, in the western part of the country.

The US resumed heavy attacks on Yemen this week in response to the Houthis’ resumption of attacks on maritime targets in the Red Sea, in what the group says is sympathy with Palestinians in Gaza.

US, Israel to hold talks on Iran next week: Report

US and Israeli officials will hold talks on Iran’s nuclear programme at the White House next week, the news site Axios reports.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi will be part of Israel’s delegation, which will include senior members of Israel’s National Security Council, the military, the Mossad (intelligence agency), the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission.

The US team will be led by Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and representatives from the State Department, Pentagon and the US intelligence community.

The meeting will be the first, since Trump took office, for the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group, the most senior forum for US-Israeli discussion on Iran’s nuclear programme.

‘Extremely desperate situation’ unfolding in Gaza Strip

It’s extremely desperate here in Gaza in light of the unprecedented Israeli escalation.

We are on the front lines of an escalating scenario where the Israeli military has been intensifying all sorts of aerial, land, and naval attacks on the already battered Gaza Strip that has been suffering from a soaring humanitarian and security crisis for 17 months.

In the last hours, we’ve seen Israeli raids on a group of residential homes in the city of Khan Younis where … 15 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, while 40 were wounded.

This is not the first attack that was carried out in this area. A number or air raids took place in other parts of the Strip, but the concentration has been … on the city of Khan Younis.

Families started to evacuate from their neighbourhoods [in parts of Khan Younis] … moving to al-Mawasi and the central areas of Gaza, looking for any place that might be safe.

The Israeli military has been issuing forced evacuation orders for residents in the south and the north of the Strip, telling them to head to areas designated as “safe humanitarian zones”.


Death toll rises to 591 in renewed Israeli attacks across Gaza

Gaza’s media office says at least 591 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 72 hours. At least 1,042 have been wounded, it added. Many others – an “unknown number” of people – remain stuck under the rubble.

The office said more than 70 percent of those killed in the past days were women and children.


_{Bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli raids are brought to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip}

Foreign UN worker killed in Gaza yesterday identified

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has confirmed the identity of its staff member who was killed yesterday when two UN guesthouses were hit by an attack in Deir el-Balah.

In a statement, UNOPS identified the staff member as Marin Valev Marinov, 51, from Bulgaria, and added that five other UNOPS colleagues were wounded.

Three of those wounded worked in support of the UN Mine Action Service, while others worked in support of the UN 2720 Mechanism for Gaza. They are all now in hospital, the statement said.

The UN is launching an investigation into the incident and expects “full support” from Israeli authorities, the statement said.

Israeli forces invaded Rafah ‘without warning’

Israeli forces invaded Rafah without even notifying or warning the residents of Rafah.

During the ceasefire’s first phase, Palestinians who used to live in Rafah went back to Rafah. What happened is that the Israeli military started launching artillery shelling, air strikes and strikes from drones, and started extensively firing and shelling Rafah.

People were shocked and started moving as soon as the shelling started.

But we’re also seeing another ground invasion in Beit Lahiya, in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces also continue to carry out a ground invasion but also artillery shelling and air strikes.

Israeli forces took over the Netzarim Corridor which is in the centre of the Gaza Strip, splitting the northern parts from the southern parts and this is obviously a wide escalation in Israeli operations on the ground against Palestinians.

Netanyahu threatened Gaza escalation ‘wider and more intense’ than war so far

Israeli forces initially went into the Netzarim Corridor yesterday in an effort to expand this buffer zone to divide the Gaza Strip in half, then we saw earlier in the day Israeli forces invading the northern part of Gaza, and now invading Rafah, an area in southern Gaza that they had been operating in for months.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Israeli military had issued evacuation orders a day ago for the entire Gaza border periphery — an indication that they were starting more ground raids and invasions once again.

Nonetheless, the Israeli prime minister, a couple of days ago after announcing that Israel was breaking the ceasefire, said that these campaigns are going to continue from land, air and sea and that they are going to be of a much wider and more intense scale than we saw in the 15 months of fighting.

As a Palestinian student, my time at Columbia has been marked by fear

On March 5, I watched dozens of police officers – invited onto campus by Columbia University’s Barnard College to break up a peaceful sit-in calling for the reversal of expulsions of three pro-Palestine students – trample and slam my classmates to the ground, arresting nine of them.

The violent police raid was a new escalation in the administration’s ongoing campaign to quash Palestinian activism on campus under the guise of combating anti-Semitism.

On March 8, the administration escalated further. It allowed the Department of Homeland Security to detain Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his university housing in New York, without a judicial warrant, in front of his eight-month pregnant wife.

Mahmoud’s arbitrary detention left many of my well-intentioned American classmates and professors feeling uneasy because it poses an existential threat to the principles of free speech, rule of law, and respect for human rights that form the cornerstone of their identity as citizens in a US democracy.

I find it insulting that Columbia President Katrina Armstrong claims to be “heartbroken” over these developments while leading an administration that actively criminalises pro-Palestine speech and gives Zionist students and faculty carte blanche to orchestrate social media campaigns calling for deportation of students.

I’ve come to recognise Mahmoud’s ordeal as part of Columbia’s broader pattern of making examples of a select few to emotionally terrorise the rest of us against daring to challenge the status quo.

Pro-Palestine protesters have filed lawsuit against UCLA over encampment attack

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/ucla-gaza-protests

Pro-Palestine protesters from the University of California, Los Angeles, are suing the university, accusing it of allowing pro-Israel rallies to frighten and assault people at an encampment that was on campus for months, The New York Times reports.

The encampment was set up as part of nationwide campus protests that called for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Times said the demonstrators accused the university, as well as police forces, of failing to protect them and shutting down the camp without legal justification, after it was attacked by pro-Israel protesters in April last year.

The new complaint was filed on behalf of 35 pro-Palestinian activists, including “students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and sympathisers”, the Times said.

It comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump pledged to expel and deport students who joined protests across university campuses last year.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/16/us/ucla-student-protests-counterprotesters-invs/index.html

Main events on March 20th

• The Israeli military launched a ground invasion of Rafah’s central Shaboura area in southern Gaza, while a second ground assault was carried out in Beit Lahiya in the north.
• The assaults come amid Israel’s renewed bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, with Gaza’s media office saying at least 591 Palestinians have been killed over the past 72 hours.
• EU leaders have deplored the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, calling in a statement for the “immediate return to the full implementation of the ceasefire-hostage release agreement”.
• Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has welcomed the approval of a record number of new housing units in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying Israel is “leading a revolution” in the area.
• Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, targeting a string of villages, in its latest violation of the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah.

_{Palestinians recite a prayer over the bodies of victims of Israel’s overnight air strikes in front of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, on March 20}

Israeli fighter jets bomb targets near Damascus: Reports

Israeli war planes have bombed military targets west of the capital Damascus, according to the TV Manar news outlet. There have been no reports of casualties so far.

Israel dropping bombs on Gaza, the Westbank, Lebanon and Syria, all thanks to US bomb shipments.

Israel's Most GENOCIDAL Threat Yet - And Our Media Covers It Up