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LAST UPDATE | 19 Mar
LONG LINES OF fleeing civilians filled the roads of Gaza today as Israel kept up its renewed bombardment of the territory for a second day, despite a chorus of calls from foreign governments and aid agencies to preserve a fragile January ceasefire.
The ministry of health in Gaza has said more than 400 people have been killed in the strikes that began in the early hours of yesterday morning. It had published a much higher death toll today covering the last 48 hours, but an official later has since withdrawn it, citing a “technical error”.
Today, Israeli troops have also reoccupied the corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting the north off from the south once again.
The Israeli military said troops began “targeted ground activities in central and southern Gaza, over the past day, in order to expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza”.
“As part of the ground activities, the troops expanded their control further to the center of the Netzarim Corridor,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
The United Nations has said one of its workers was killed and five others were injured in last night’s bombing after a UN building in Deir el Balah was struck.
Israel has denied that it struck the building and encouraged people to “act with caution regarding unverified reports”, but UN officials have said a member of the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) died when an explosive hit the compound he was in.
“This was not an accident, this was an incident. What’s happening in Gaza is unconscionable,” said UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva. “I am shocked and devastated by this tragic news.”
“These premises were well known by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and they were ‘deconflicted’,” he added.
“Attacks against humanitarian premises are a breach of international law. UN personnel and its premises must be protected by all sides,” he said.
ActionAid Ireland meanwhile said that a staff member who worked at its partner hospital was among those killed.
Mohammad Ahmad Abu Marshood, an engineer and projects coordinator at Al-Awda Hospital, was killed alongside his pregnant wife and close relatives.
A spokesperson for ActionAid Ireland said his death comes amid “direct attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and pushed beyond breaking point”.
In a voice note shared with ActionAid Ireland following yesterday’s airstrikes, Dr Mohammed Salha, the acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, said that the bodies of 11 people killed and 35 injured were taken to the hospital, and that there is a shortage of medication and medical supplies.
ActionAid Ireland CEO Karol Balfe said yesterday’s strikes are “yet another example of the Israeli military’s disturbing pattern of attacks on hospitals and health workers”.
She remarked that “hospitals should be places of healing, not horror”.
In a statement this evening, Tánaiste Simon Harris said that UN and other humanitarian workers “must be protected at all times as they carry out their lifesaving work”.
“Attacks on UN facilities are a violation of international humanitarian law,” Harris said.
UNOPS is shocked and devastated by the tragic news that a UNOPS colleague has been killed in central #Gaza.
— UNOPS (@UNOPS) March 19, 2025
Reports are that there are five more casualties, several of whom are very severely injured.
Full statement: https://t.co/zh9rcbsDi5 pic.twitter.com/QJsjiZh8nf
Families with young children fled northern Gaza for areas further south, fearing for their lives after Israel demanded civilians leave areas it described as “combat zones”.
A Hamas official said the group was open to talks on getting the ceasefire back on track but rejected Israeli demands to renegotiate the three-stage deal agreed with Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators.
“Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations but we insist there is no need for new agreements,” Taher al-Nunu told the AFP news agency.
“We have no conditions, but we demand that the occupation be compelled to immediately halt its aggression and war of extermination, and begin the second phase of negotiations.”
Negotiations have stalled over how to proceed with a ceasefire whose first phase expired in early March, with Israel refused to move to a new phase intended to bring the war to an end. Instead Israel demanded Hamas accept a “bridge” proposal offered by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said this morning that women and children were among the dead and injured in Khan Younis in the south and Gaza City in the north overnight.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned that the strikes were “only the beginning”.
“Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you – and them – this is only the beginning,” he said in a video statement.
Netanyahu’s office also said this morning that the Israeli government had “unanimously approved” his proposal to reappoint far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir as national security minister, who quit the government when he refused to accept the original ceasefire deal in January.
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the return of all the hostages seized by the Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the latest Gaza war.
In Jerusalem, thousands of protesters marched today and chanted slogans against the Netanyahu and his government, accusing Netanyahu of undermining democracy and resuming Gaza bombardments without regard for hostages.
Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem and have said the decision to resume strikes could “sacrifice” their loved ones.
“We hope all people from Israel will join this movement and we will not stop until we restore democracy and freedom for the hostages,” said Zeev Berar, 68, from Tel Aviv.
“At this rate we won’t have a country left, not a democratic one. It will be a dictatorship,” student Roni Sharon, 18, told AFP.
Some in the crowd brandished banners reading: “We are all hostages”.
Hamas has not responded militarily so far, but in a statement it urged friendly countries to “pressure” the US to bring to an end the strikes by its ally Israel. The renewed violence has sparked extreme concern among international leaders, including the Taoiseach.
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