50,000 Dead and Counting

The war is back and with it screams under the rubble. The Israeli bombardment has hardly subsided, targeting everything indiscriminately just as it did before the ceasefire, including schools housing the crippled, residential home, tent encampments and a UN compound in Dier al Balah.

Palestinian men, women and children walking along a dirt road and carrying their belongings in their arms, a recurring scene in a war that has forced most of Gaza’s population to flee within the territory often multiple times.

Over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since Israel began its campaign in the enclave. The grim milestone was reached at the end of a week of deadly strikes by Israeli security forces that upended a fragile cease-fire that went into effect in January.

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced that there have been over 113,200 people injured since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel and took roughly 250 people hostage and killed over a thousand others—prompting Israel’s fierce and deadly war.

In January, Hamas and Israel agreed to a cease-fire that paused hostilities and saw 25 living Israeli hostages released in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention.

Hamas wanted to open talks for the second phase of the deal, that was supposed to see Israel fully withdraw from the enclave and Hamas release remaining living hostages. Israel instead wanted to impose the terms of a new cease-fire presented by the Trump administration, and refused to hold the talks regarding a permanent end to the war.

.”Israel brazenly resumed its devastating bombing campaign in Gaza killing at least 414 people in their sleep, including 174 children, and again wiping out entire families in a matter of hours. Palestinians in Gaza—who have barely had a chance to start piecing together their lives and continue to grapple with the trauma of Israel’s past attacks—have woken up once more to the hellish nightmare of intense bombardment,” wrote Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, in a statement.

Since March 18, 673 Palestinians have been killed, according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

“It’s displacement under fire,” said one Gazan in the city.

Israeli political and military leaders are reportedly considering plans for a new ground campaign in Gaza that “could include a military occupation of the entire enclave for months or more.”

Israeli forces drew condemnation from all corners of the world after bombing the only cancer hospital in the Gaza Strip. Israel Defense Forces troops carried out an airstrike on the abandoned Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor, where the IDF launched what it called a “limited ground operation”.

Despite the on-going genocide Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland as ceasefire lies in tatters.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 42, Apr 13 - 19, 2025