Israel launched airstrikes across both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, resulting in over 20 deaths, including children and an Al Jazeera journalist. Both Hamas and Hezbollah strongly condemned Israel for violating the ceasefire agreement.
Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip caused at least six fatalities, including Ahmed Wisha, a journalist and photographer for Al Jazeera, who died along with two others when their home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza was hit. Ahmed was the latest member of the Wisha family to lose his life to the conflict, following his brother Mohamed, also an Al Jazeera journalist, who was killed in April.
Al Jazeera issued a statement strongly condemning Israel’s actions, calling them a crime reflecting Israel’s systematic policy of targeting journalists to "silence the truth." However, the Israeli military denied these allegations, claiming that Ahmed and the two others killed were terrorists affiliated with Hamas’s armed wing, acting as snipers planning attacks on Israeli soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not publicly presented evidence to support this.
In addition, a midnight strike on a residence in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City resulted in the immediate death of four family members, including two women and children.
The Gaza Ministry of Health revealed that since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October last year, the Israeli military has killed 1,007 people in Gaza. Counting from the initial incident on 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, the cumulative death toll in Gaza has surpassed 73,000.
Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations regional relief agency, told the UN Security Council that despite the ceasefire allowing more aid trucks into the area, reducing the percentage of households facing food insecurity from 92% to 36%,
more than 70% of Gaza’s population still lacks adequate housing, with severe sanitation system degradation and collapsing basic services. Palestinians continue to be deprived of fundamental rights such as safety, shelter, clean water, and healthcare.
Meanwhile, the ceasefire condition requiring Hamas to disarm and cease governance in Gaza has not been met. Currently, a “Peace Committee” made up of foreign diplomats oversees a technocratic committee without political ties to administer Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously stated he ordered the military to expand control over 70% of Gaza’s territory, despite the agreement stating Israel will not occupy and must gradually return control of the area.
Tensions have also escalated sharply in Lebanon. The National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli air and drone strikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley killed at least 20 people just one day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
In the town of Barish, Israeli missiles struck a three-story residential building, killing a father, mother, and two children. The Lebanese army also reported one soldier killed in an attack along the Kfar Rouman-Nabatiyeh road, while the Central Bank of Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh branch was destroyed in a bombing.
The Israeli military acknowledged conducting the strikes, describing them as retaliatory measures after the Iran-backed Hezbollah fired over 50 missiles across the border into southern Lebanon overnight targeting Israeli forces. Israel also disclosed that five of its soldiers were killed in clashes over the past 48 hours, emphasizing that maintaining troops in the “security zone” aims to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure, not to harm civilians.
Hezbollah denied the allegations and accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire hundreds of times, stating that Israeli forces attempted incursions into the Ali Al-Taher hills in southern Lebanon, prompting Hezbollah to fire back. They warned that Israeli attacks “will not go unanswered” and called on the US government to pressure Israel to halt such actions. Senior Hezbollah leaders reiterated that armed resistance remains legitimate as long as Israeli troops remain in Lebanese territory.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that since 2 March, Israeli attacks have killed 4,057 people in Lebanon, while Israel has lost at least 32 soldiers and 4 civilians.
This renewed violence has raised major concerns internationally, as it could cause the recently announced ceasefire and understandings between the US and Iran, aimed at permanent ceasefires across all fronts including Lebanon, to collapse. Israel, which did not participate directly in the talks, continues to oppose certain terms that might limit its military operations.