At least 58 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a third successive night of Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to medical officials at hospitals in the strip. The death toll is expected to rise, as further casualties are dug from rubble in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis and the northern town of Beit Lahiya. The timing of the strikes in the new Israeli offensive, which began on Tuesday, appears to have increased the proportion of women and children among the victims, with many sleeping when missiles strike. A first wave of airstrikes on Tuesday shattered a two-month pause in hostilities and killed more than 400, according to the health ministry in Gaza, in what may have been the single bloodiest day of the 18-month conflict. The dead included 183 children and 94 women, Palestinian officials said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the most recent overnight strikes. Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that Israel had attacked “dozens of terror targets and terrorists in Gaza, including Hamas commanders, to weaken their military and governmental capabilities and remove threats to Israel”. Israel has also issued new warnings to Palestinians to evacuate areas in the north and east of Gaza to avoid being trapped by any fighting and has reoccupied the key Netzarim corridor, a strategic strip of land in the centre of the territory that divides it into northern and southern halves. The new Israeli evacuation orders suggest ground assaults are planned for coming days or weeks, though Israeli forces appear to be relying on air power for now. A strike on Thursday on a family home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village just outside Khan Younis near the border with Israel, killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents. The home was within an area covered by a recent evacuation order. The European hospital in the southern city of Rafah said it received 26 bodies after the overnight strikes, mostly women and children. The Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed in an attack on a home. In northern Gaza, the Indonesian hospital said it had received the bodies of seven people killed in a strike on a home in Beit Lahiya, a town near the border. Israel and Hamas blame each other for the collapse of the ceasefire, which had largely held since coming into effect in mid-January and had brought some respite to Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants. Hamas, which still holds 59 of about 250 hostages it seized in the October 2023 attack into southern Israel that triggered the conflict, says it wants to conclude the three-phase ceasefire deal agreed by both sides after more than a year of indirect talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US. More than half of the hostages are thought to be dead. The group said on Thursday that talks with mediators to halt the Israeli offensive were continuing, and called again for Israel to abide by the earlier agreement. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and other Israel officials said the decision to renew attacks in Gaza came after Hamas had rejected proposals for a 30-60-day extension of the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire. They consulted the Trump administration before the strikes went ahead. Critics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of resuming the offensive to reinforce his coalition government before a crucial budget vote in parliament, to rally support for the war in the face of popular backing for a ceasefire to return the hostages and to head off widespread public anger over his attempt to fire the head of the internal security service, the Shin Bet. Underlining the deep divisions in Israel, tens of thousands of people protested against the renewed offensive and Netanyahu’s government on Wednesday. More demonstrations are planned on Thursday.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/20/israel-strikes-gaza-child-death-toll