Gaza City, March 28 (RHC)-- At least 38 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks carried out across the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll from Israel’s onslaught since October 2023 to more than 50,200.
A Gaza Health Ministry statement said Thursday that 82 more injured people in the last 24 hours were transferred to hospitals. “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
In one of its latest attacks on Gaza City, Israeli aircraft bombed a home in the al-Saftawi area, killing seven Palestinians. In central Gaza, artillery shelling targeted the northern neighborhoods of the Bureij, Nuseirat and al-Maghazi refugee camps.
Regime forces also destroyed residential homes in Beit Lahia. Media reports said dozens of people had been killed since the early hours of the morning.
The Israeli army launched a renewed aerial campaign on the Gaza Strip on March 18, killing 855 people and injuring nearly 1,900 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the besieged Palestinian region.
Growing number of Israeli soldiers, reservists unwilling to serve
An Israeli media report says a growing number of soldiers has indicated a lack of motivation and an unwillingness to serve as the regime expands its ground invasion of Gaza. A senior commander in the reserves told Haaretz newspaper that there are numerous cases of reservist soldiers announcing a refusal to report for duty.
The primary reasons are anger at the Israeli regime’s policies and the feeling that it has not done enough to secure the release of captives held in the blockaded Palestinian territory, it said.
Additional reasons include the soldiers’ opposition to plans for a law that will exempt ultra-Orthodox Israelis from military service, as well as the regime’s bid to consolidate its control over the judiciary.
Other reserve officers who spoke with the newspaper said that soldiers and commanders are facing significant exhaustion and fatigue. “The line was crossed,” said Alon Gur, who publicly resigned from the Israeli air force last week after being dismissed for refusal to serve. He accused authorizes of “prioritizing politics over human lives.”
Hebrew media recently reported that response rate for the upcoming reservist call up is not expected to exceed 50 percent. This would mark a 50 percent drop since the start of the war in October 2023.
As part of the renewed campaign, Israeli occupation forces have reentered several areas of Gaza on the ground, including the Netzarim corridor, which Tel Aviv was required to withdraw from as part of the ceasefire deal.
Israel refuses Egypt proposal for Gaza ceasefire
Separately, media reports quoting Egyptian sources confirmed that all proposals put forward by Cairo in recent days for a deal between Israel and Hamas have been rejected by Israel. “Israel has rejected all proposals recently put forward by Cairo,” they said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected all recent ceasefire proposals put forward by Cairo, including a truce initiative that Hamas resistance movement accepted, as well as a proposal for calm during the Eid holiday.
The U.S. administration has refused to provide any guarantees that it would pressure the Israeli prime minister to accept a truce deal, the report said. Cairo has reportedly rejected Israeli attempts aimed at passing a forced displacement plan.
Israel is intensifying air strikes on Rafah and surrounding areas near the border with Egypt in an apparent effort to force the displacement of Palestinian residents from southern Gaza.
On March 18th, Israel resumed its military aggression against the Gaza Strip, ending a fragile truce that had lasted for only about two months.
