DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Local health officials said Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across he Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, bringing the total to nearly 600 killed since Israel shattered a truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.
Hours later, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties, in the first such attack since Israel broke the ceasefire on Tuesday.
Zaher Al-Waheidi, the head of the records department at the Gaza Health Ministry, said Israeli bombardments have killed at least 592 people in the past three days.
The Israeli military said it was again enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City. Palestinians were not being ordered to leave northern Gaza but can no longer enter, the military said, and are only allowed to move south on foot using the coastal road. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to what remains of their homes in the north during the ceasefire.
Early Friday, Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to fire the head of the country’s Shin Bet internal security service. The late-night decision to sack Ronen Bar deepens a power struggle focused largely over who bears responsibility for the Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
It also could set the stage for a crisis over the country’s division of powers. Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis to dismiss Bar.
Israeli ground forces, meanwhile, are pushing into Gaza near the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah, the military said Thursday. The operations come a day after Israel moved to split Gaza in two by retaking part of the strategic Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south.
The military ordered Palestinians to evacuate an area in central Gaza near the city of Khan Younis, saying it would operate there in response to Thursday’s rocket fire from Hamas. The Palestinian militant group said it targeted Tel Aviv. One rocket was intercepted and two fell in open areas, according to the army.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels also launched two missiles at Israel, one early Thursday morning and another in the evening, the military said. Both were intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, according to the army, and no injuries were reported. Air raid sirens rang out and exploding interceptor rockets were heard in Jerusalem. There have been three such attacks since the United States began a new campaign of airstrikes against the Houthis earlier this week.
A ‘bloody night’ for hard-hit Gaza
Gaza’s Health Ministry said overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 85 people, mostly women and children. The ministry’s records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Indonesian Hospital said it received 19 bodies after strikes in Beit Lahiya, near Gaza’s northern border, which was heavily destroyed and largely depopulated earlier in the war.
“It was a bloody night for the people of Beit Lahiya,” said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency service in northern Gaza, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble. “The situation is catastrophic.”
Israel’s military said Thursday its airstrikes in Gaza had killed the head of Hamas’ internal security apparatus and two other militant commanders. Israel has said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. A United Nations-backed group of human rights experts accused Israel last week of “disproportionate violence against women and children” during the war in Gaza.
One of the strikes early Thursday hit the Abu Daqa family’s home in Abasan Al-Kabira, a village outside Khan Younis near the border with Israel. It was in an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.
The strike killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European Hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.
“Another tough night,” said Hani Awad, who was helping rescuers search for more survivors in the rubble. “The house collapsed over the people’s heads.”
War in Gaza has no end in sight
US President Donald Trump’s administration reiterated its support for Israel, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay.”
Israel, which cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, has vowed to intensify its operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas says it’s willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Shin Bet chief’s dismissal deepens Israeli political turmoil
Netanyahu said Sunday he would seek Bar’s dismissal, saying he had lost faith in his security chief.
But critics say the move is a power grab by Netanyahu against an independent-minded civil servant.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated across the country in recent days in support of Bar, including a mass gathering outside Netanyahu’s office late Thursday in the pouring rain.
A Shin Bet report into the Oct. 7 attack acknowledged failures by the security agency. But it also said that policies by Netanyahu’s government created the conditions for the attack.
Netanyahu is also upset that the Shin Bet has launched an investigation into connections between some of his close aides and the Gulf state of Qatar. His office said Bar’s dismissal would take effect on April 10 or before then if a replacement is found.
Bar did not attend the meeting but sent a letter to the Cabinet ahead of time protesting the firing.
He said the dismissal was meant to hinder the agency from further investigating the failures of Oct. 7 and undermining the investigation into whether Qatar influenced the prime minister’s office.
“This is a direct danger to the security of the state of Israel,” Bar wrote.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war at its height displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.
Strikes in Gaza kill 85 overnight, bringing the total since Israel broke ceasefire to nearly 600
https://arab.news/nawp6
Strikes in Gaza kill 85 overnight, bringing the total since Israel broke ceasefire to nearly 600
- Medics say Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip
UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries
- Middle East peace envoy Sigrid Kaag denounces settlement expansions; says ‘nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people’
- She calls on Hamas to release remaining hostages; warns both sides to respect obligations under international humanitarian and human rights laws
NEW YORK CITY: A top UN official on Friday condemned ongoing violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, urged all parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza.
During a meeting of the Security Council, the third this week on events in the region, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Sigrid Kaag, also condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and warned that continuing violations of Security Council Resolution 2334 are damaging the prospects for a two-state solution.
Adopted in 2016, Resolution 2334 calls for “immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction,” along with the reversal of “negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution.”
In a report presented to the council, Kaag said Israeli authorities have approved about 10,600 new housing units in settlements, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem, despite the resolution’s demand for a halt to such activities.
Her report also highlighted a sharp increase in seizures and demolitions of Palestinian-owned properties. It said that during the reporting period, from Dec. 7, 2024, to March 13, 2025, at least 460 structures were destroyed, displacing 576 Palestinians, including nearly 300 children.
Such actions have been strongly criticized by the UN as a violation of international law, and Kaag reiterated that they undermine hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
“Unfortunately, the high number of fatal incidents across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel precludes me from detailing all,” she continued.
The situation in Gaza continues to be dire, Kaag said, with the UN confirming that at least 3,860 Palestinians were killed during the reporting period, and about 6,000 injured. The humanitarian crisis in the war-battered enclave remains “catastrophic,” as Israeli authorities have halted the entry of essential goods and supplies. Access to clean water is restricted for more than half a million people there, and the already fragile health infrastructure has been severely affected.
Kaag reiterated that the provision of humanitarian aid “is not negotiable” and deliveries must be allowed to reach those in need. She strongly condemned the blocking of aid to Gaza by Israeli authorities, as well as “the widespread killing” and wounding of civilians, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” she said.
Kaag also condemned “indiscriminate attacks and the use of human shields” by Hamas, and stressed that all parties involved must “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
She called for the immediate release of the 59 remaining Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, 24 of whom are alive and 35 dead.
“Palestinian armed groups continued to hold hostages in horrific conditions, and fired rockets indiscriminately towards Israel,” said Kaag. “Hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.
“I strongly condemn the reported ill-treatment of hostages. I remain appalled that there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages may be subjected to sexual violence and abuse. I also reiterate my condemnation of Hamas’s abhorrent public displays accompanying the release of living and deceased hostages.”
Kaag also condemned the reported ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, of Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities and said that when detainees are released, this must also be carried out in a dignified way.
Violence in the West Bank continues to escalate, with Israeli military operations and settler-related violence contributing to rising casualty figures. At least 123 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed. Meanwhile, 10 Israelis, including children, have lost their lives in attacks by Palestinians. Rising tensions within Palestinian refugee camps, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarem, have resulted in the widespread displacement of occupants and the demolition of homes.
“The escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank is deeply troubling,” Kaag said. “Alongside the rising death toll, Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank are being emptied and sustaining massive infrastructure damage during Israeli operations.”
Kaag rejected any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the occupied territories, warning that such action amounts to “a grave violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
She condemned violence on both sides of the conflict and called for a policy of “maximum restraint” from the security forces. Lethal force must only be used when “strictly unavoidable to protect life,” she added.
Kaag also expressed alarm over ongoing attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, some of which have occurred with the support of Israeli security forces.
In addition, she voiced concern about the ongoing Israeli efforts to undermine the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides vital aid and services to Palestinian refugees.
In her closing remarks, she emphasized the need for a political process within which to resolve the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“We must work collectively to establish a political framework that outlines tangible, irreversible and time-bound steps,” she said.
“A viable two-state solution — Israel and Palestine, of which Gaza is an integral part, living side-by-side in peace and security — is long overdue.”
UAE top, Saudi Arabia third in Arab region in 2025 World Happiness Report
- UAE placed ahead of UK, US in global list
LONDON: The UAE secured 21st place in the 2025 World Happiness Report, ahead of the UK, the US, and France, while also ranking as the happiest country in the Arab world, it was announced this week.
The annual report, compiled by Gallup, evaluated happiness levels in 147 nations based on data collected between 2022 and 2024.
Finland retained its position as the happiest country in the world for the eighth consecutive year, while Mexico and Costa Rica entered the top 10. The US, meanwhile, ranked 24th and the UK 23rd.
Within the Arab region, Kuwait was ranked 30th globally, making it the second happiest country in the region.
Saudi Arabia was in 32nd place, ranking third in the Arab world.
Oman placed 52nd globally, securing the fourth position regionally, while Bahrain ranked 59th worldwide and fifth in the Arab world.
Libya, Algeria, Iraq, and the Palestinian Territories rounded out the regional rankings at 79th, 84th, 101st, and 108th globally, respectively.
The report measured national happiness based on several key factors, including gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perceptions of corruption, and generosity.
Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza and destroy its only cancer hospital
- Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said: “I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that served as a lifeline for so many patients”
- The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the hospital’s destruction
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip on Friday and blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory, as Israeli leaders vowed to capture more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.
The hospital was located in the Netzarim Corridor, a band that splits Gaza in two and was controlled by Israeli troops for most of the 17-month-long war.
Israel moved to retake the corridor this week shortly after breaking the ceasefire with Hamas. The truce had delivered relative calm to Gaza since late January and facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages.
The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which was inaccessible to doctors and patients during the war, because Hamas militants were operating in the site. Türkiye, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.
Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said a medical team visited the facility during the ceasefire and found that, while it had suffered damage, some facilities remained in good condition.
“I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that served as a lifeline for so many patients,” he said in a statement issued by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the hospital’s destruction and accused Israel of deliberately “rendering Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.”
Hospitals can lose their protected status under international law if they are used for military purposes, but any operations against them must be proportional. Human rights groups and UN-backed experts have accused accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s health care system.
UN warns of ‘massive trauma’ for Gaza’s children
- It’s fear on top of fear, cruelty on top of cruelty, and tragedy on top of tragedy
- “Children who had returned to school after 18 months out of school, now back in tents, ... hearing the bombardment around them constantly
GENEVA: The UN warned Friday that all Gaza’s approximately 1 million children were facing “massive trauma” as fighting in the war-ravaged territory resumed and amid dire aid shortages.
Humanitarians described an alarming situation in Gaza amid a growing civilian death toll since Israel resumed aerial bombardment and ground operations this week after a six-week ceasefire.
Sam Rose, the senior deputy field director in Gaza for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, highlighted the psychological shock for already traumatized children to once again find themselves beneath the bombs.
This is a “massive, massive trauma for the 1 million children” living in the Palestinian territory, he told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Gaza.
The breakdown of the ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19 comes as the population is already dramatically weakened from 15 months of brutal war sparked by Hamas’s deadly Oct, 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“It’s worse this time,” Rose warned, “because people are already exhausted, they’re already degraded, their immune systems, their mental health, (and) population’s on the verge of famine.
“Children who had returned to school after 18 months out of school, now back in tents, ... hearing the bombardment around them constantly.
“It’s fear on top of fear, cruelty on top of cruelty, and tragedy on top of tragedy.”
James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, said traumatized children usually only start to process their trauma when they begin returning to normalcy.
“Psychologists would say our absolute nightmare is that they return home and then it starts again,” he told reporters.
“That’s the terrain that we’ve now entered,” he said, warning that Gaza was the only “example in modern history in terms of an entire child population needing mental health support.”
“That’s no exaggeration.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 504 people had been killed since Tuesday, including more than 190 under the age of 18.
The toll is among the highest since the war started more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel.
It has also been a deadly period for humanitarians, with seven UNRWA staff killed just since the ceasefire broke down, bringing the total number killed from that agency alone to 284 since the Gaza war began.
A Bulgarian worker with another UN agency was also killed this week, as was a local staff member of Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity said Friday.
Humanitarians warned the situation on the ground has been made worse by Israel’s decision earlier this month to cut off aid and electricity to Gaza over the deadlock in negotiations to prolong the ceasefire.
“We were able to bring in more supplies during the six weeks of the ceasefire than ... in the previous six months,” Rose said, warning though that that progress was “being reversed.”
He said there was only enough flour in Gaza for another six days.
Asked about Israel’s charge that Hamas has diverted more than sufficient aid inside Gaza, Rose said he had “not seen any evidence” of that.
“There is no aid being distributed right now, so there is nothing to steal.”
He warned, though, that if aid is not restored, “we will see a gradual slide back into what we saw in the worst days of the conflict in terms of looting ... and desperate conditions among the population.”
Meanwhile, Elder described the vital aid items that aid agencies could not bring into Gaza.
“We’ve got 180,000 doses of vaccines a few kilometers away that are life-saving and are blocked,” he said.
He also pointed to a “massive shortage” of incubators in Gaza even as pre-term births were surging.
“We have dozens of them, again sitting across the border,” he said. “Blocked ventilators for babies.”
Former central bank governor Riad Salameh’s case referred to financial prosecution
- PM Nawaf Salam announces Lebanon’s shift to digital governance
- Former economy minister banned from travel on suspicion of corruption
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced on Friday that the government was working on establishing an executive mechanism to transition Lebanon into a digital state.
Lebanon is focused on using all its resources and connections to leverage external expertise in order to pursue the government’s development goals, he stated during a meeting with a delegation of business leaders.
The Cabinet approved a mechanism for administrative appointments in state institutions on Thursday, which Salam described as “transparent and competitive.”
Media reports in Beirut on Friday characterized this mechanism as a “theoretical qualitative leap and a reformative advancement in the selection of public sector employees. However, the critical factor remains its successful implementation.”
The position of governor of Lebanon’s central bank, the Banque du Liban, is currently vacant as President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Salam have not yet reached an agreement on the most suitable candidate. In the meantime, the judiciary is awaiting the findings of the financial public prosecutor regarding the investigation into the bank’s former governor Riad Salameh.
Salameh has been in pretrial detention for the past seven months on charges of embezzling public funds.
A judicial source told Arab News that Investigative Judge Bilal Halawi had concluded the investigation into Salameh’s case after issuing two in absentia arrest warrants for Salameh’s advisers.
The case has now been referred to Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim for review in preparation for issuing an indictment.
There is no specific deadline for the financial prosecution to respond.
Salameh — along with two lawyers, Michel Tueini and Marwan Issa Khoury, who served as advisers at the central bank — is being prosecuted for allegedly embezzling over $40 million from the bank’s funds. It is claimed that this amount was transferred to Salameh’s account with the assistance of Tueini and Issa Khoury.
In the ongoing pursuit of corruption cases, Judge Jamal Hajjar, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, has moved to ban former Economy Minister Amin Salam from traveling.
The decision was made based on a report from the National Economy, Industry, Trade, and Planning Committee.
It also included his advisers Karim Salam and Fadi Tamim, as well as financial auditor Elie Abboud.
On Thursday, MP Farid Boustany, the committee’s chairman, lodged a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the former minister, his advisers, and Abboud as a signatory.
The complaint alleges “bribery, influence-peddling, blackmailing insurance companies, mismanagement of public funds, and money laundering.”
In response to these accusations, Salam denied the charges, claiming they were part of a “systematic campaign of personal or political targeting” against him and his team.
Salam served as the economy minister for less than four years in the Najib Mikati government.
A report from the Parliamentary Observatory determined that Salam “misused his authority over the Insurance Control Commission, which oversees the insurance sector, for personal benefit at the expense of public funds.”
A judicial source informed Arab News that the travel ban was a preliminary measure aimed at ensuring that the suspects are notified about their upcoming interrogations, scheduled to occur soon at the Palace of Justice in Beirut.
The National Economy Committee of Parliament prepared a dossier detailing “violations” by Salam during his time in office.
The committee had previously summoned him to discuss the oversight of insurance companies by the ministry.
Salam did not attend three sessions, leading the committee to refer the case to the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation and the financial prosecution for further action.
In 2023, sources said suspicions arose after his adviser, Tamim, was accused of blackmailing insurance companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent the revocation of the company’s license.
“Tamim was arrested, and it later came to light that Minister Karim Salam, the brother of the minister, had pressured insurance companies to pay large sums for mandatory solvency studies through a firm owned by Tamim. These actions resulted in accusations of abuse of power and blackmail.
“The National Economy Committee uncovered evidence that former Minister Salam misused public funds, spending over $50,000 a month on his office and engaging in questionable contracts.”
