Gaza Deaths Pass 50,000; War On Gaza Day 533

IsraelPalestineNews: Gaza deaths pass 50,000 (Israeli war deaths about 400): War on Gaza Day 533

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 130 Gazans and wounded another 263 in the last 48 hours, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said on Saturday (find details here). Among the dead were Salah al-Bardawil, a top political figure in Hamas, and his wife.

The Israeli military called on Gaza’s Rafah residents to evacuate to the north, adding that movement with vehicles will not be allowed.

In Lebanon, at least six people were killed and 31 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes on Saturday.

BREAKING: Gaza deaths pass 50,000 (Israeli war deaths about 400)

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Health Ministry said Sunday — a grim indicator of the conflict’s continued lethality less than a week since Israel shattered a nearly two-month-old ceasefire, launching airstrikes and ground incursions into the territory.

NOTE: The wording of the Washington Post’s announcement, pointing out “the conflict’s continued lethality,” fails to disclose the fact that every one of the deaths since January 13, 2025 (days before the ceasefire began) has been Palestinian. The vast majority have been women and children.

The article does not acknowledge that while the Israeli military has killed over 50,000 Palestinians following October 7th, 2023, just over 400 Israelis have been killed – all of them military.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

An unknown but significant number of the Israeli deaths on October 7th, 2023 were caused by Israeli soldiers – a fact well-known in Israeli media, but ignored by mainstream Western outlets.

At least 21 Palestinians, including six children, were killed on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes on the northern and central Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s ceasefire brought hope, but it was the calm before a brutal storm

In Gaza this weekend, the mood is darker than it has been at perhaps any time in this long, appalling war. Last Tuesday Israeli warplanes, tanks, artillery, drones and ships launched a wave of strikes, shattering the increasingly fragile pause in hostilities that had brought respite to the devastated territory for nearly two months. The ceasefire had also brought hope which, Palestinians in Gaza said, made the return to violence that much more unbearable.

In a video statement last Wednesday, Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, called on 2.3 million people in Gaza to “banish Hamas”, saying “the alternative is complete destruction and ruin”.

Two days later, as air strikes continued and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) seized a key strategic corridor that divides Gaza, Katz issued a new ultimatum, this time telling Hamas to give up the 59 hostages it is still holding or “lose more and more land that will be added to Israel”. He said that the IDF would use “all military and civilian pressure, including … implementing US President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents”.

These last lines were important. A second phase of the ceasefire deal agreed in January was supposed to start three weeks ago and lead to an eventual definitive end to the war. A principal reason for Israel ditching this plan in favor of a 30- to 60-day truce with no such endpoint is that Israel’s most senior policymakers feel not just empowered but even inspired by the new incumbent of the Oval Office (continue reading here).

RELATED: (Ha’aretz) Israel Is Preparing to Occupy Gaza, Reinstate Military Rule and Fully Control the Palestinian Population

Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza brings terror, starvation, and uncertainty as civilians struggle to survive amid airstrikes and blockades.

West Bank: Over 5,350 violations committed by illegal Israeli settlers in past decade: Report

Illegal Israeli settlers have carried out more than 5,350 acts of violence against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank over the past 10 years, according to an official report on Saturday.

The report, released by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s National Bureau for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance, details a wide range of illegal settler violations, including stone-throwing at Palestinians, their homes, and vehicles, as well as arson attacks targeting houses, businesses, farms, and other private properties.

Other violations include the destruction of Palestinian olive trees, sabotage of water infrastructure, theft and killing of livestock, and forced displacement using various methods.

The report also notes a rise in gun violence incidents by illegal settlers, particularly following Oct. 7, 2023.

“The Israeli war on Gaza has provided an opportunity for illegal settlers to advance their agenda of forcibly displacing Palestinians from their villages,” the bureau stated.

In February alone, Israeli forces carried out 1,475 attacks against Palestinians, while illegal settlers committed 230 additional assaults, according to a separate report by the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

People check burnt vehicles at the site of a reported attack by Israeli settlers in a residential area on the outskirts of Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank, on November 4, 2024.

Hamas accuses Trump admin of distorting truth by claiming it ‘chose’ war

Hamas on Saturday accused Trump appointee of distorting the truth by saying the Palestinian militant group had chosen war with Israel by refusing to release hostages.

“The claim that ‘Hamas chose war instead of releasing the hostages’ is a distortion of the facts,” Hamas said in a statement in response to the accusation from US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes on Tuesday.

He had said: “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.”

The Palestinian militant group added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “rejected these initiatives and deliberately sabotaged them to serve his political interests,” referring to criticism he has faced in Israel, including from families of hostages held in Gaza.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday before sending troops back into areas evacuated during the pause in fighting.

It came after weeks of disagreement with Hamas over extending the ceasefire that took effect on January 19.

Israel says its military campaign is necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and secure the freedom of about 60 captives, dead or alive.

Many hostage families have instead called for a renewed ceasefire, noting most captives who returned alive did so during truce periods.

In its statement, Hamas accused the United States of equating “the aggressor with the victim”.

“The US statements reveal once again its full complicity in the aggression against our people, as well as its collusion with the occupation in committing genocide, starvation and siege against more than two million Palestinians in Gaza,” it said.

Forcibly displaced Palestinians who fled Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza arrive in Gaza City on March 18, 2025, after Israel resumed its bombardment of the Strip.

US envoy Witkoff: Stability in Gaza may require ‘population changes’

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, suggested that achieving stability in Gaza could involve demographic changes, hinting that some displaced Palestinian residents may not return.

In a nearly two-hour interview with US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on Friday, Witkoff discussed the war on Gaza and Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks following Israel’s renewed attacks which shattered two months of relative calm in Gaza.

Witkoff highlighted that the aim for the US in formulating a postwar strategy in the war-battered territory was achieving “stability”.

However, the top diplomat merely indicated that the US leader’s plan included “stability in Gaza could mean some people come back … some people don’t” (read more of Witkoff’s statement here).

NOTE: Forced population transfer is a form of ethnic cleansing and a crime against humanity.

‘Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain’: Outrage as the University Yields to Trump’s Demands

Columbia University received a wave of criticism on Friday after it agreed to a number of demands from the Trump administration as part of negotiations over $400 million in federal grants and contracts that the Trump administration had pulled due to the school’s alleged “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

The school agreed to a ban on masks and to appoint a senior vice provost with broad power to oversee both the department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studied and the school’s Center for Palestine Studies, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

On Friday evening, writer Ross Barkan wrote on X, “I confess I don’t get Columbia folding. Don’t they have an endowment worth many billions? Very rich alumni? Alumni who hate Trump? They could do a massive ‘resistance’ fundraiser to make up for lost federal dollars. Very odd and very weak.” Others echoed this sentiment.

“Columbia’s capitulation to fascist government intervention is so severe when you really look at the details,” wrote Nour Joudah, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, on X. “This is pathetic.”

Leaders at Columbia’s Knight First Amendment Institute expressed sadness. “The administration held up the university at gunpoint, but I can’t help but feel that Columbia has lost something it may never regain,” wrote the litigation director at the Knight Institute, Alex Abdo, on Friday (continue reading here).

RELATED: K-12 Leaders Rejected Weaponization of Antisemitism Claims. Why Won’t Higher Ed?

An aerial view of encampment as pro-Palestinian student protesters continue demonstrations during the second week of the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ at Columbia University in New York, United States on April 28, 2024

MORE NEWS:

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Ha’aretz: ‘Netanyahu Is Killing the Hostages and Destroying Democracy’: Tens of Thousands Protest Across Israel

IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 22, 2025 (ongoing count):

At least 50,560 Palestinians killed, 120,853 injured – including:
at least 49,617 killed in Gaza (~14,550 children) -not including the latest attacks
at least 943 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 112,950 injured in Gaza
at least 7,903 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, at least 150 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza during the ceasefire, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations since the ceasefire came into force in November.

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 22, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org