Hamas Officials Reject Egyptian Ceasefire Proposal Over Disarmament
While Egypt’s proposal states that negotiations with Israel cannot commence without Hamas laying down its weapons, Hamas reiterated that disarmament remains out of the question and that Israel must first withdraw from the Gaza Strip and end its strikes (Al Jazeera)
Israel Establishes New Security Corridor in Rafah
The Israel Defense Forces announced that it seized full control of the Morag Axis between Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, widening the IDF’s security zone and cutting off Rafah from the rest of the Gaza strip (ABC)
Israel Launches Raid on Balata Refugee Camp in West Bank
Palestinian sources published a video showing Israeli forces entering the refugee camp in the city of Nablus, where soldiers reportedly beat and arrested individuals and surrounded the camp with military vehicles; meanwhile, Israeli strikes on the Shujayea district in Gaza killed at least twenty-nine and left over eighty wounded (Al Jazeera)
Trump, Netanyahu Comment on Gaza
Trump said alongside Netanyahu in the Oval Office yesterday that he would like the war in Gaza to “stop,” as he believed it would in the not “too-distant” future; Netanyahu said Israel was committed to getting hostages out of Gaza and eliminating Hamas (Times of Israel)
Trump reiterated his suggestion that Palestinians be removed from Gaza (Reuters)
Also yesterday, the heads of six UN agencies issued a joint statement calling for a cease-fire and noting that no aid had entered the territory since Israel started blocking it on March 2 (Reuters)
Macron Visits Cairo for Summit on Gaza With Egyptian and Jordanian Leaders
French President Emmanuel Macron met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ahead of the summit to discuss the situation in Gaza, where Macron reiterated France’s opposition to any relocation or annexation plans for Gaza and its inhabitants; Macron also stated that Hamas “must have no role” in governing Gaza, in line with Egypt’s and the Arab League’s peace proposal (France24)
Meanwhile, medics in Gaza stated that Israeli attacks have killed at least forty-two Palestinians since dawn (Al Jazeera)
Israeli Forces Shoot and Kill Palestinian-American Teenager in West Bank
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that three “terrorists” hurled rocks toward their vehicle on a highway near Ramallah, which reportedly prompted the IDF soldiers to open fire on the three Palestinian teenagers, killing Omar Rabea in the process (BBC)
New Evidence on Gaza Medics’ Deaths
An unnamed Israeli military official told news organizations that Israel’s original account of the killings of fifteen Palestinian medics in Gaza last month was “mistaken;” newly published video footage of the incident showed the medics’ vehicles were not advancing with lights and emergency signals off, as Israel first claimed (AP)
Israeli forces killed eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers, and a UN staffer; the unnamed Israeli official said Israeli forces believed at least six of the fifteen dead were Hamas operatives, but did not provide any evidence (NYT)
Netanyahu to Begin Four-Day Visit to Hungary Despite ICC Arrest Warrant
Hungarian President Victor Orbán stated that he will not detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Hungary’s membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and subsequent obligation to arrest anyone subjected to an ICC arrest warrant (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Netanyahu stated that the Israeli military plans to seize larger territory in Gaza and create a new security corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis (AP)
Netanyahu said Israel is “dividing up” the strip in order to pressure Hamas to release the remaining fifty-nine hostages, and Katz said a “large-scale” evacuation of the enclave’s population was planned amid renewed fighting (FT;Reuters)
The top UN aid official for Gaza said that 64 percent of the territory “is under active forced displacement orders or falling within the so-called ‘buffer zone” (OHCA)
Israeli Military Says It Is “Returning to Intense Operations” in Rafah
The Israeli military told tens of thousands of the area’s residents to evacuate to Al-Mawasi, a coastal area that has also been hit by Israeli strikes (FT)
Hamas and Israel Endorse Different Proposals for Return to Cease-Fire in Gaza
The reported gap between their stances remains significant after weeks of indirect negotiations and as aid organizations warn of food shortages in the enclave (NYT;AP)
Israel kicked off a return to fighting in Gaza earlier this month and has blocked the delivery of food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies (NPR)
A top Hamas official said Saturday that the group had accepted a proposal endorsed by mediators Egypt and Qatar that would reportedly have Hamas release five hostages per week, unnamed security sources told Reuters (AP;Reuters)
The proposal would return to Israel and Hamas’ original cease-fire framework, an unnamed Hamas source told CNN; that would entail the resumption of aid as well as talks on a second phase involving an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (CNN)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that it responded with a counterproposal that had been coordinated with the United States, the third mediator (Times of Israel)
Separately, Netanyahu said Sunday that Hamas must “lay down its arms,” and that Israel planned to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s “voluntary migration plan” from Gaza (France24)
Gazans Protests Against War, Hamas
Demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday in Gaza criticized the continuation of the Israel-Hamas war and included rare open chants against Hamas itself; a video of a march in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza pictured hundreds of people (FT)
There were few immediate signs of Hamas forcefully repressing the demonstrations, as has occurred in the past (NYT)
Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Thirty-Eight in Gaza in Past Day
Israeli airstrikes ramp up in central areas of the Gaza Strip, including the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp (Al Jazeera)
Palestinians in Gaza Stage Largest Protests Against Hamas and War Since October 2023
Thousands marched through northern Gaza, expressing their displeasure with Hamas and the Israel-Hamas conflict with chants such as “Hamas terrorists” and “we want an end to the war” (CNN)
Egypt Proposes Plan to Renew Israel-Hamas Ceasefire
Cairo announced that both Hamas and the United States reacted positively to their proposal for the second stage of the original ceasefire, which would require Hamas to release five living Israeli hostages a week in exchange for Israel’s full military withdrawal from Gaza (Reuters)
An unnamed Israeli official told the Times of Israel that “we haven’t heard of any new proposal” (Times of Israel)
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed over sixty Palestinians on Monday, including two Palestinian journalists (Al Jazeera)
The United Nations said it would reduce its personnel in Gaza after five aid workers were killed in the renewed fighting (UN)
Israeli Security Cabinet Authorizes Separation of Thirteen Jewish Settlements From West Bank
Israel announced that the settlements in the West Bank will be officially recognized as independent, facilitating the development and management of areas Israel claims as its own; approximately 700,000 Jewish settlers reside in the West Bank and east Jerusalem (Reuters)
Israeli Defense Minister Intensifies Pressure on Hamas
Israel Katz said if Hamas does not release the hostages it is still holding, “it will lose more and more land that will be added to Israel” (NYT)
Israeli Military Launches Limited Ground Operations in Central and Southern Gaza
Israel’s defense minister said the country would soon issue evacuation orders for some parts of the territory (Times of Israel)
Meanwhile, a second day of Israeli strikes yesterday killed at least forty-eight Palestinians, according to Gaza health workers (Reuters)
Hamas said that Israeli operations in the Netzarim corridor violated the truce with Israel and called on mediators to “step in to renew the cease-fire” (Haaretz)
Later in the day, Hamas fired rockets at Israel in its first attack since Israel broke a bilateral truce on Tuesday; the group’s military wing said it was retaliating for Israel’s strikes in recent days, which have killed more than five hundred people since Tuesday, according to the Gaza health ministry (WaPo)
Israeli military forces said they intercepted one rocket and two others fell in open terrain (NYT)
Israel’s Defense Minister Says New Strikes on Gaza Would Not Stop Unless Hamas Releases All Remaining Hostages
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strikes “just the beginning” (Times of Israel)
By midday today local time, there were no reports of Hamas retaliating militarily; the group said it was communicating with mediators (Al Jazeera)
Thousands demonstrated in Jerusalem today against the return to war and Netanyahu’s efforts to dismiss Israel’s internal security chief (Times of Israel)
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Israel’s return to fighting in Gaza “unacceptable” (Times of Israel)
Israel Launches Extensive Air Strikes Across Gaza Strip
It is Israel’s first major attack on the territory since a cease-fire with Hamas began two months ago; more than four hundred people were killed and hundreds were injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry (Reuters)
Targets were struck in northern, central, and southern Gaza within hours; Israel’s prime minister said they had ordered the attacks after negotiations with Hamas had stalled—and that Israel would “act against Hamas with increasing military strength” going forward (NYT)
Israel’s military said that its operations are expected to expand beyond air attacks, telling Gaza residents living in border areas to evacuate (CNN)
Hamas confirmed five of its senior officials were killed in the strikes, while hospitals reported that women and children were among those dead (NPR;AP)
Hamas said Israel had broken the cease-fire agreement through an “unprovoked escalation” and exposed the hostages in Gaza “to an unknown fate” (AP;FT)
In the hours following Israel’s strikes, there were no immediate reports of Hamas military retaliation (NYT)
Fifteen Killed in Gaza After Israeli Forces Launch Strikes
Israeli airstrikes killed nine Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on March 15, including four journalists, though the Israeli military claimed that six of those killed were militants; separate strikes over March 15 and 16 killed six others, despite the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas (Reuters)
UN Independent Inquiry Found Israel Carried Out “Systematic” Gender-Based Violence in Gaza
The report detailed targeting fertility clinics and maternity wards (WaPo)
It was the first time a UN committee has said Israel committed “genocidal acts” under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the accusations “baseless,” while Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva said the commission had a “predetermined and biased political agenda” (NYT)
The report comes amid uncertainty over the fate of the current Gaza cease-fire and as Israel conducts a new freeze on aid entering Gaza (AP)
Six Palestinians Killed in West Bank as Israeli Offensive Continues
The Palestinian Authority stated that Israeli forces shot and killed armed Palestinians along with a sixty-year-old woman in Jenin on Tuesday (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Israel’s air force killed four Palestinians in Gaza after claiming they were terrorists who posed a threat to its personnel (Reuters)
France, Germany, Italy, and the UK Jointly Endorse Five-Year Plan for Gaza’s Postwar Reconstruction Proposed by Arab Countries
The European countries called the proposal “realistic” and hailed its pledges of a “swift and sustainable improvement” of the territory’s living conditions; Israel and the United States rejected it last week (BBC)
Meanwhile, Israel’s energy minister said that the country was cutting its remaining electricity supplies to Gaza, adding that Israel aimed to “ensure the return of all the hostages” (CNN)
Trump Administration Has Held Direct Talks With Hamas Over Potential Hostage Releases
It is unusual for U.S. officials to talk directly with groups that it lists as terrorists; the nominee for U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs conducted the talks (Bloomberg)
The White House said it had consulted with Israel (BBC)
Trump said on social media last night that there would be “hell to pay” if hostages were not released “now” (CNN)
United States and Israel Reject Arab Plan for Gaza
Arab leaders yesterday endorsed a $53 billion reconstruction plan for postwar Gaza that would avoid displacing Palestinians from the territory (CNN)
It would sideline Hamas and empower an initial committee of bureaucrats to run Gaza before turning it over to a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA); the proposal did not directly answer the questions of how or whether to disarm Hamas (NYT)
A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said the plan “does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable,” while Israel accused the PA of “corruption” and “support for terrorism” (NBC)
In U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to Congress last night, he said he was jointly working to “bring back our hostages from Gaza;” he praised the Abraham Accords deal signed during his first administration and pledged to help “create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region” (NYT)
Separately, partners in Gaza for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Strip has caused food prices to double and raises the risk of charity kitchens completely running out of food stocks (BBC)