100 Dead As Israel Launches Fresh Gaza Offensive

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The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” as part of a fresh offensive in Gaza, after rescuers reported 100 people killed in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The army said on Telegram that the “initial stages” of the offensive, known as Operation Gideon’s Chariots, had begun.

The operation was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, to achieve all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”, it said in a post in Arabic.

A separate statement in English, as reported by AFP, said the army was “mobilising troops to achieve operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip”.

A woman looks up at a damaged building at the scene of an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs on April 1, 2025. An Israeli strike on south Beirut killed at least three people on April 1, Lebanon said after Israel announced its second such strike in a fragile four-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The attack came without warning at around 3:30 am (0030 GMT) during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday marking the end of the Ramadan fasting period. (Photo by Ibrahim AMRO / AFP)

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday, while the army said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.

The latest operation comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade on Gaza, as NGOs warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

The return to fighting since March 18 has drawn international condemnation, with the UN’s rights chief on Friday denouncing the renewed attacks — and what he described as an apparent push to permanently displace the population.

– ‘Ethnic cleansing’ –

“This latest barrage of bombs… and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

The main Israeli campaign group representing the families of hostages said that by extending the fighting, Netanyahu was missing a “historic opportunity” to get their loved ones out through diplomacy.

Mourners surround the flag-draped coffins of Hezbollah fighters, during their funeral along with civilians killed in the recent war with Israel, in the southern Lebanese border village of Kfar Kila on March 9, 2025. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Hamas on Friday demanded that the United States press Israel to lift the aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group.

Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, was freed last week after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.

FILES: Scores of displaced Palestinians walk along a road in the Saftawi area of Jabalia, as they leave areas near Gaza City where they had taken refuge, toward the further northern part of the Gaza Strip, shortly after a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was expected to be implemented. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid”.

Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / — AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2024 —
A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed by Israeli bombardment outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis following strikes east of the city, in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 22, 2024. – The nine-month-old war in the Palestinian territory raged on unabated on July 22, with Israel telling civilians in the eastern part of Khan Yunis to evacuate. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP) / NO USE AFTER JANUARY 31, 2025 23:00:00 GMT – AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2024

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– ‘People are starving’ –

US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.

“We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.

The Arab League is to meet in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss regional crises, with Gaza expected to be high on the agenda.

Hamas fighters secure an area in a square before releasing four Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on January 25, 2025. Four freed Israeli women hostages were home in Israel January 25, ending more than 15 months of captivity after Hamas militants handed them over to the Red Cross under a truce deal in the Gaza war. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.

The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34, the military says, are dead.