Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight leaves more than 50 Palestinians dead
[April 03, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Overnight strikes by Israel killed at
least 55 people across the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday,
a day after senior government officials said Israel would seize large
areas of Gaza and establish a new security corridor across the
Palestinian territory.
Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until
the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and
leaves the territory. Israel has imposed a month-long halt on all
imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians
facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle.
Officials in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the strip, said the
bodies of 14 people had been taken to Nasser Hospital – nine of them
from the same family. The dead included five children and four women.
The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between 1
and 7 years and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European hospital
near Khan Younis, hospital officials said. In Gaza City, 21 bodies were
taken to Ahli hospital, including those of seven children.
The Israeli military ordered the residents of several areas -- Shujaiya,
Jadida, Turkomen and eastern Zeytoun -- to evacuate on Thursday, adding
that the army “will work with extreme force in your area.” It said
people should move to shelters west of Gaza City.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was
establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure
Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which
Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian
territory.
Netanyahu referred to the new axis as the Morag corridor, using the name
of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis,
suggesting it would run between the two southern cities. He said it
would be “a second Philadelphi corridor ” referring to the Gaza side of
the border with Egypt further south, which has been under Israeli
control since last May.
Israel has reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, also named for
a former settlement, that cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including
Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. Both of the
existing corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.
“We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by
step, so that they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas,
expressed its “complete rejection” of the planned corridor. Its
statement also called for Hamas to give up power in Gaza, where the
militant group has faced rare protests recently.
Netanyahu’s announcement came after the defense minister, Israel Katz,
said Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its
so-called security zones, apparently referring to an existing buffer
zone along Gaza’s entire perimeter. He called on Gaza residents to
“expel Hamas and return all the hostages,” saying “this is the only way
to end the war.”
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Palestinians inspect a UN building after it was hit by an Israeli
strike, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 2,
2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24
of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of
more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli
pullout. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or
leave the territory.
Violate international law
On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security
control of Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald
Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere
through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary
emigration.”
Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from
their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it
uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan
would likely violate international law.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on
Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and
taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in
ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living
hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those
killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around
20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height
displaced around 90% of the population.
Israeli strikes on Syria
Separately, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in
southwestern Syria, Syrian state media reported Thursday.
SANA said the nine were civilians, without giving details.
Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said they were local gunmen from the Daraa province, frustrated with
Israeli military encroachment and attacks in recent months.
Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a
buffer-zone there, which it says is to secure Israel’s safety from
armed groups. But critics say the military operation has created
tensions in Syria and prevents any long-term stability and
reconstruction for the war-torn country.
Israel also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including
over a dozen strikes near a strategic airbase in the city of Hama.
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