The Palestinian Health Ministry announced Sunday that the death toll from the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip reached 50,021, with 113,274 injured since 7 October 2023, following Israel's official resumption of war last week.

On 18 March, Israel reignited its genocide — unilaterally ending a two-month ceasefire agreement with Hamas it violated over 400 times, killing over 170 Palestinians — the death toll has surged, with 673 Palestinians killed and 1,233 wounded in the past six days, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

The Israeli occupation's latest wave of violence on Saturday was around Rafah, where Israel restarted its ground invasion, ordering Palestinians to evacuate on foot to the Mawasi area, a stretch of squalid camps with limited infrastructure. As the assault continues, Israel has threatened to expand its operations into the already heavily destroyed Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood.

Among those martyred is Salah Bardawil, a prominent Hamas leader, killed in a targeted strike in Rafah alongside his wife. Bardawil’s assassination adds to the growing list of casualties, including entire families obliterated by airstrikes. 

In Khan Younis, five children and their parents were killed in a separate bombing, while two more families in Rafah also lost their lives in the overnight strikes.

On Sunday, Palestinian men, women, and children were walking along a dirt road and carrying their belongings in their arms, a recurring scene in a genocide that has forcibly displaced Palestinians within the territory multiple times.

“It’s displacement under fire,” Mostafa Gaber, a local journalist who left Tel Al-Sultan with his family, told AP. In a video call, he said hundreds of people were fleeing as tank and drone fire echoed nearby. “There are wounded people among us. The situation is very difficult,” he added.

Mohammed Abou Taha, another displaced resident, said many people could not evacuate because of the surprise overnight incursion. He also said his sister and her family were sheltering in a school in an area of Rafah surrounded by Israeli forces.

The intensified airstrikes have already further decimated vast areas of the territory, leaving around 90 percent of the population forcibly displaced once again, with no access to humanitarian aid.

Humanitarian disaster deepens
 
On the second day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting, the genocidal Israeli government renewed its deadly blockade on Gaza, a collective punishment of the Palestinians through starvation, which has been dubbed a war crime by international organizations. No water, food, fuel, tents, or medical aid have entered the war-ravaged strip in 21 days, a crisis exacerbated by Israel cutting off electricity.

"The Gaza Strip is on the verge of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster amid ongoing genocide and international silence,” the Gaza Government Media Office warned on Sunday. "More than 2.2 million Palestinians are facing an unprecedented catastrophe as the Israeli occupation carries out acts of genocide.” 

With Gaza’s hospitals overwhelmed, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Israeli occupation forces are also preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded, leaving many without urgent medical care. 

Displaced 19-year-old Iman Al-Bardawil said many Palestinians like her struggle to "afford food and drink."

"We are in the month of Ramadan, which is a blessed month, and people... find themselves obliged to come here," Bardawil told AFP, lamenting the suffering she saw around her.

"I'm here to get rice for the children, but it's gone," said Saed Abu al-Jidyan, a Gazan displaced from his home in northern Gaza.

"The crossings are closed, and my salary has been suspended since the beginning of the war... there is no food in Gaza."

In a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal Saturday to set up a new directorate tasked with advancing what it claims is the “voluntary departure" of Palestinians, which international organization said would amount to expulsion, another violation of international law.

Local journalist Mustafa Gaber, who fled with his family from Rafah’s Tel Sultan area, described the situation as “displacement under fire.” Israeli forces are encircling the region, forcibly displacing hundreds of people with nothing but their belongings. “There are wounded people among us,” Gaber said, “and we have no place to go.”

As Israel's offensive enters its sixth day, Gaza's already dire conditions have worsened, deepening the sense of abandonment felt by the 2.2 million Palestinians trapped in the strip.

Israel’s military operation has drawn widespread Arab and international condemnation. The United Nations has called Israel’s blockade and airstrikes a violation of international law, labelling the ongoing siege a war crime.

Violating the ceasefie
 
Hamas has accused Israel of violating the agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US and failing to keep to its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said its resumption of the war came after “Hamas refused time and again to release our hostages and rejected all the proposals US Envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators have given it.”

Hamas had sought to uphold the terms of the initial ceasefire deal, which outlined a phased captive-prisoner exchange followed by negotiations for a permanent truce.

However, Israel blocked progress toward the second phase and renewed its assault on Tuesday, refusing to commit to its implementation despite Tel Aviv signing the agreement.

On Tuesday, US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said: “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.” 

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Friday, US Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff defended Israel’s military escalation in Gaza, calling it "unfortunate" but "necessary in response to Hamas."

Arab response
 
In early March, Egypt presented a $53 billion Arab-Islamic plan for Gaza reconstruction to the Arab Summit in Cairo in response to Trump’s outlandish scheme to take over the strip and displace its population to build a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

The Egyptian proposal, which aims to rebuild Gaza over five years, focusing on relief and long-term development, suggests a temporary governance structure led by independent experts and international peacekeepers. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty, said, "The success of Gaza’s reconstruction depends on consolidating the ceasefire and enabling the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip."

The plan received international backing and garnered support from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), China, Russia, and the European Union (EU).

On Saturday, Hamas slammed the US, saying, "The claim that 'Hamas chose war instead of releasing the captives is a distortion of facts.”

The Palestinian 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 captives held in Gaza.

For its part, Egypt condemned Israel’s reignition of the genocide in Gaza as a violation of the ceasefire and a dangerous escalation.

A Foreign Ministry statement called the attacks "a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement and a dangerous escalation that threatens dire consequences for regional stability." 

Last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty revealed that consultations with the US and the international community to restart the ceasefire are ongoing.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly stressed that Egypt and Qatar are seeking a sustainable ceasefire and maintaining calm between Palestinians and Israelis.