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Good morning.
<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">Israeli strikes have killed at least 58 people overnight in Gaza, according to three hospitals, with the Associated Press reporting that airstrikes hit homes — killing men, women, and children as they slept.</p>
<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that had halted the war and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. There has been a scale of destruction and death rarely seen since the early weeks of the war in 2023.</p>
<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday alone, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, taking the death toll close to 50,000 people, mostly civilians.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>What has Israel said about the airstrikes?</strong> The Israeli government argues that Hamas has broken the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/18/why-has-israel-resumed-large-scale-airstrikes-on-gaza" data-link-name="in body link">ceasefire</a> by refusing new hostage releases. Meanwhile, Hamas says Israel has broken the deal by reneging on its earlier commitment to move to the scheduled second phase.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>Are the renewed attacks related to legal troubles of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu</strong><strong>?</strong> That’s what some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/18/why-has-israel-resumed-large-scale-airstrikes-on-gaza" data-link-name="in body link">observers suggest</a>. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption. If found guilty, he could face prison. On Tuesday, a court approved his request not to appear at a hearing “due to the renewal of the war”, Israeli media reported.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>This is a developing story.</strong> Follow our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/mar/20/israel-gaza-war-latest-middle-east-news-ceasefire-hostages-netanyahu-hamas-trump" data-link-name="in body link">live coverage here</a>.</p>
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<h2 id="trump-and-zelenskyy-share-very-good-call-as-ukraine-accepts-partial-ceasefire" class="dcr-12ibh7f"><strong>Trump and Zelenskyy share ‘very good’ call as Ukraine accepts partial ceasefire</strong></h2>
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<span class="dcr-1qvd3m6">Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had ‘a positive, very substantive’ conversation with the president.</span>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good” call yesterday, according to Trump, in the first conversation since the US and Ukrainian presidents’ disastrous showdown three weeks ago.</p>
<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank,” and said he had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/19/trump-has-very-good-phone-call-with-zelenskyy-who-signs-on-to-partial-ceasefire" data-link-name="in body link">signed up to a partial ceasefire</a> that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>What does this mean for the ceasefire?</strong> Trump, on Truth Social, said the partial ceasefire would apply to “energy and infrastructure.” Previously, Ukrainian and US negotiating teams had agreed on a full ceasefire, but Putin turned that down, suggesting instead pausing mutual strikes on energy infrastructure and a ceasefire in the Black Sea.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>What about Putin’s motives?</strong> There remains no indication that Putin has abandoned any of his most hardline objectives, according to Kommersant, a well-connected Russian newspaper. It reported that Putin told a meeting of senior business leaders on Tuesday that he intends to continue the fighting until he gets full control of the four regions Moscow annexed in 2022.</p>
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<h2 id="trump-administration-attempting-to-deport-pro-palestinian-student-at-georgetown-university" class="dcr-12ibh7f"><strong>Trump administration attempting to deport pro-Palestinian student at Georgetown University</strong></h2>
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<span class="dcr-1qvd3m6">A Georgetown University spokesperson said the university had not received a reason for Suri’s detention.</span>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">Donald Trump’s administration has detained an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University and is seeking to deport him after deeming him a harm to US foreign policy, the student’s lawyer said on Wednesday.</p>
<p class="dcr-s3ycb2">The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, including Mahmoud Khalil, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/mahmoud-khalil-statement-columbia" data-link-name="in body link">recent Columbia graduate</a>. The measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics.</p>
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<p class="dcr-s3ycb2"><strong>What are the details of the case?</strong> The Department of Homeland Security accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, according to Fox News.</p>
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<h2 id="in-other-news" class="dcr-12ibh7f"><strong>In other news …</strong></h2>
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<p class="dcr-uiowb2">Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday which aims to shut down the Department of Education, according to reports.</p>
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<p class="dcr-uiowb2">UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, is facing a backlash from many of his own Labour MPs, after his government announced welfare changes that will deliver cuts for 1.2 million disabled people.</p>
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<p class="dcr-uiowb2">The Trump administration paused $175m in
