By Abdul Adil

(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):

GAZA

At least 41 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll since October 2023 to 50,021, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

A ministry statement said the toll included two bodies retrieved from the rubble in the last 24 hours.

The ministry said 61 more injured people were transferred to hospitals, taking the number of injuries to 113,274 in the Israeli onslaught.

“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

More than 700 Palestinians were killed and over 1,200 others injured in a surprise aerial campaign by Israel on Gaza since Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Three municipal workers were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, authorities said.

The three lost their lives in the strike that targeted their vehicle in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Abasan al-Kabira Municipality said in a statement.

According to the statement, the targeted vehicle was marked with the logos of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.

This assassination “adds to the crimes of genocide committed by the Israeli army in clear violation of international law, which guarantees freedom of action for water and sanitation service employees even during wartime,” it said.

The municipality appealed to the international community to “ensure the protection of municipal employees under international humanitarian law.”

Rosalia Bollen, a communications specialist from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says an immediate ceasefire is the most critical measure that can be taken to save the lives of children in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.

“We’ve seen over the past couple of days over 200 children killed,” she told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi.

“Hundreds more injured, including with very severe injuries, with burns over their bodies, with shrapnel lodged inside their bodies, with fractures; children who’ve lost limbs, and children who’ve lost their parents and their siblings,” she said.

“We’re absolutely terrified about what might happen over the coming hours and days,” Bollen added.

In addition to the return of the ceasefire, Bollen said what is “equally” needed is for vital humanitarian assistance to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

“What we need is for this aid blockade on humanitarian goods, fuel and cooking gas to be lifted so that we can bring in lifesaving assistance and distribute that to people who need it very much right now,” she said.

Israeli’s army continues attacks across the Gaza Strip – killing at least 35 people in pre-dawn raids, including senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil and his wife who were sleeping in a tent.

An Israeli ban on the entry of supplies to the Gaza Strip is pushing the enclave closer to an acute hunger crisis, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday.

“It’s been three weeks since the Israeli authorities banned the entry of supplies to Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

“No food, no medicines, no water, no fuel. A tight siege longer than what was in place in the first phase of the war.”

Israel has banned the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 4, following the expiry of the first phase of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

Lazzarini warned that Gaza’s population depends on imports via Israel for their survival.

“Every day that passes without the entry of aid means more children go to bed hungry, diseases spread & deprivation deepens,” he said.

“Every day without food inches Gaza closer to an acute hunger crisis,” the UNRWA chief said.

“Banning aid is a collective punishment on Gaza: the vast majority of its population are children, women & ordinary men.”

Paramedics were injured on Sunday when ambulances came under fire in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency said.

The agency said Israeli forces besieged several ambulances as paramedics responded to casualties after Israeli airstrikes in the Al-Hashashin area in Rafah.

It said several paramedics were injured, without specifying their number.

The agency said it also lost contact with one of its rescue teams as they attempted to reach out to ambulances targeted by Israeli forces in Rafah.

The Israeli military has ordered people to leave the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah, forcing Palestinians to again flee by foot. Many people in Gaza have been displaced numerous time during the war, and Israel often carries out strikes on areas it calls “safe zones”.

“It’s displacement under fire”, Mustafa Gaber, a journalist who left with his family, told the Associated Press. He added that he could hear tank and drone fire echoing nearby.

“The shells are falling among us and the bullets are [flying] above us”, said Amal Nassar, also displaced from Rafah. “The elderly have been thrown into the streets. An old woman was telling her son, ‘Go and leave me to die.’ Where will we go?”

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said army forces launched an operation in the area, ordering Palestinian residents to relocate to al-Mawasi along Gaza’s coast, calling Tel al-Sultan a “dangerous combat zone.”

A medical source at Gaza’s European Hospital told Anadolu that an Israeli airstrike on the Ashour family home in the Al-Nasr area of southern Rafah killed eight people.

Two Palestinians were also killed in an attack on the Al-Hashash area, the source added.

Four more victims were brought to the hospital after an airstrike targeted the Al-Fukhari area east of Khan Younis.

The hospital also received multiple injured civilians following Israeli attacks on refugee tents and homes across southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, a medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that nine people were killed when Israeli forces bombed several homes in the city.

Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli army had struck at least six homes in different areas of Khan Younis in recent hours.

According to reports WAFA correspondents, eight people were killed and others wounded when Israeli warplanes bombed the home of the Ashour family in the Al-Jenena neighborhood in Rafah. Additionally, two others were killed in the Al-Hashaheen area of Rafah, while several were injured when an Israeli strike targeted the home of the Shaat family in the Al-Nasr neighborhood in the northern part of the city.

In Khan Younis, four Palestinians were killed and others injured when Israeli airstrikes hit a house belonging to the Abu Daqqa family in the Al-Fukhari area to the east. Two women, including a child, were killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on a house in the al-Yabani neighborhood west of the city.

Another two Palestinians were killed and others injured when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, while two more were killed and several injured in an airstrike on the home of the Al-Agha family in the northern part of the city.

In Gaza City, four Palestinians were injured when Israeli airstrikes targeted a home in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood to the east of the city. The injured were transferred to the Arab Hospital in Gaza City for treatment.

Earlier last night, a young girl was killed and several others were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the eastern part of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

WAFA correspondents reported that Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the Al-Fukhari area, east of Khan Younis, resulting in the killing of 6-year-old Lilian Jihad Abu Daqah and injuries to several others.

Since Israel’s resumption of its genocidal war on Gaza early Tuesday morning, the ongoing assault has resulted in nearly 600 people killed and over a thousand injured by Thursday evening, with 70% of the casualties being women, children, and elderly.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported today that four of its ambulance crews remain trapped and besieged by Israeli forces in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, since the early hours of the day. The organization stated that contact with the trapped medical crew remains lost.

In a statement released today, the society emphasized that it is still waiting for permission to reach the besieged crew in the Al-Hashashin area of Rafah.

Earlier today, the PRCS reported that several of its paramedics were injured by Israeli gunfire while being trapped in the area. Local sources indicated that Israeli drones fired at the ambulances, as the area came under heavy artillery bombardment from Israeli forces.

WEST BANK

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to separate and legalize 13 illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.

“We continue to lead a revolution of normalization and regulation in the settlements. Instead of hiding and apologizing – we raise the flag, build and settle. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” Smotrich said.

The decision to separate the settlement outposts came during a Cabinet meeting held Saturday night.

Hamas condemned the Israeli move as a “desperate attempt to impose a fait accompli.”

Smotrich’s comments “confirm that settlements, in all their forms, are a racist colonization project aimed at displacing our people, stealing their land and holy sites, and imposing a hateful apartheid regime, in flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws and conventions,” it said in a statement.

At least 13 Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

Israeli forces searched several homes in the city of Qalqilya and arrested five people, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Four more people were taken into Israeli custody in Nablus city and one in Jenin in the occupied territory, Wafa said.

Israeli forces also detained three Palestinians in the town of Silwad in the central West Bank.

The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 15,700, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

LEBANON

In Lebanon, Israeli forces airstrikes killed at least seven people and injured 40 others following an alleged rocket attack, endangering a ceasefire deal reached with Hezbollah four months ago.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said in the town of Touline in the Marjayoun district of southern Lebanon, five people, including a child, were killed and 11 injured in an Israeli airstrike.

In the towns of Housh al-Sayyid and Saraain in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel governorate, it said Israeli airstrikes left six injured.

An Israeli drone strike targeted a parking area in the al-Raml neighborhood of Tyre on Saturday evening, injuring four people, according to an initial Health Ministry toll.

The ministry added that a strike on the town of Yahmor al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh district injured one person, while two others were wounded in a strike on Kfarkela.

The attacks came after Israel claimed that its settlement of Metula was hit by a rocket attack originating from Lebanon, prompting Israeli forces to retaliate with airstrikes on several villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

Israeli military vehicles breached a border fence with Lebanon and conducted bulldozing operations before withdrawing from the area, the Lebanese army said on Sunday.

A military statement said the cross-border incursion targeted the Qatmoun Valley near Rmeish in Nabatieh province.

The army condemned the Israeli military incursion as a “flagrant violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and a ceasefire agreement.

Resolution 1701, adopted on Aug. 11, 2006, calls for a complete halt to hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and the establishment of a weapons-free zone between the Blue Line, a de facto border, and the Litani River in southern Lebanon, with exceptions for the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL).

“The Israeli enemy has escalated its attacks on Lebanon since Saturday, carrying out dozens of airstrikes across Lebanon, killing and injuring dozens”, the army said.

According to the statement, the army reinforced its military presence in the area after the Israeli incursion while a UNIFIL patrol documented the violations.

An Israeli drone struck a car in the town of Aita Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon early Sunday amid reports of casualties.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed the attack, claiming that it targeted a Hezbollah member.

A fragile ceasefire had been in place in Lebanon since November, ending months of cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, which escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.

Lebanese authorities reported nearly 1,100 Israeli violations of the ceasefire, including the deaths of 100 victims and injuries to more than 330.

YEMEN

The Israeli army claimed Sunday to have intercepted a missile from Yemen as regional tension continued to escalate over the resumption of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire agreement.

A military statement said the missile was shot down before it entered Israeli airspace.

The army said air-raid sirens were activated in Tel Aviv according to protocol.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that all takeovers and landings were temporarily halted at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport following the missile strike.

Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom said two Israelis were injured in two separate crashes as they hurried for shelter after the rocket fire.

The Yemeni Houthi group confirmed that it targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a statement, military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attack had disrupted air traffic at the airport for more than half an hour.

On Saturday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching a hypersonic missile at the airport, the third in the past two days and the fifth since Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire deal this week.

The Houthi group has been attacking Israeli-linked ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones since late 2023, disrupting global trade for what it said was a show of solidarity with the Gaza Strip.

The Houthi group on Saturday evening said that new US airstrikes targeted Al Hudaydah International Airport in western Yemen.

“A new American aggression targeted Al Hudaydah Airport with three airstrikes,” the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV said on X.

The broadcaster did not provide details regarding casualties or damage caused by the attack.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said he had ordered a “decisive and powerful” attack against the Houthis.

In response, the group said Thursday that Trump’s threats “will not deter them from supporting Gaza,” as they resumed launching missile and drone attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea. This came alongside Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza since early Tuesday.

By Thursday evening, American airstrikes in Yemen killed 79 people and injured over 100 others, including women and children, according to Houthi statements.

[Photo: Palestinians flee to Khan Yunis as the Israeli army continues to bomb Rafah, Gaza on March 23, 2025. Photojournalist: Ali Jadallah/AA]