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Gaza health ministry says Israeli strikes killed 330 people
"The health ministry has recorded more than 330 deaths, most of them Palestinian women and children, and hundreds of wounded, dozens of them in critical condition," the head of the ministry, Mohammed Zaqut, told AFP.
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A woman searches through the rubble of her home, destroyed in an Israeli strike, for salvageable items at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2025. (AFP/Eyad Baba)
T
he health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from Israel's most intense strikes on the territory since the start of a truce had risen to "at least 330".
"The health ministry has recorded more than 330 deaths, most of them Palestinian women and children, and hundreds of wounded, dozens of them in critical condition," the head of the ministry, Mohammed Zaqut, told AFP.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to take "strong action" against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza in response to the group's refusal to release hostages and rejection of ceasefire proposals.
"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
Hamas, meanwhile, accused Israel of overturning the hard-fought ceasefire deal, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain.
Israel's renewed intense pressure on Hamas came as tensions flared elsewhere in the Middle East, a major supplier of oil to global markets, which has seen the Gaza war spread to Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any further attacks on international shipping carried out by the Houthi group, as his administration expanded strikes in Yemen, the biggest US military operation in the region since he returned to the White House.
Strikes were reported in multiple locations. Palestinian health ministry officials said many of the dead were children.
The Israeli military, which said it hit dozens of targets, said the attacks would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond air strikes, raising the prospect that Israeli ground troops could resume fighting.
The attacks were far wider in scale than the regular series of drone strikes the Israeli military has said it has conducted against individuals or small groups of suspected militants and follows weeks of failed efforts to agree an extension to the truce agreed on January 19.
Among those killed was senior Hamas official Mohammad Al-Jmasi, a member of the political office, and members of his family, including his grandchildren who were in his house in Gaza City when it was hit by an air strike, Hamas sources and relatives said. In all, at least five senior Hamas officials were killed along with members of their families.
Israel has weakened Hamas and the group's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, killing their leaders while launching attacks on the Houthis, all members of what has been called Iran's "Axis of Resistance" against US and Israeli interests.
