Despite killing over 500 civilians in a 72-hour genocidal campaign, Israel’s renewed Gaza offensive sees no end as the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) brace for more blood in the occupied territories and publicise their plans to launch attacks on hospitals in the entrapped enclave.
On Tuesday, March 18th, Israel resumed its genocidal attacks in Gaza, shattering a fragile three-month ceasefire negotiated with Hamas in January. The truce had offered fleeting respite to Gaza’s 2.1m residents, already reeling from 17 months of Israeli aggression that killed over 48,000 Palestinians—including more than 13,000 children—and displaced over a million from northern Gaza.
Under the January agreement, a two-phase hostage exchange programme was initiated, but Israel halted the process after phase one, accusing the Palestinian resistance organisation Hamas of violating terms. By dawn on March 18th, Gaza was again under bombardment. And on March 20th, the IOF revealed plans for expanding Israel’s renewed offensive targeting Gaza.
Excuses for Israel’s renewed offensive
The IOF framed their return to Gaza as a “counterterrorism” necessity, a card it plays to woo its western sponsors. Over the past few hours, IOF troops began conducting ground activity in the area of Shabura in Rafah, dismantling “terrorist infrastructure”, it said.
Simultaneous operations targeted northern and central Gaza, including a former Turkish hospital in the north that the IOF claimed Hamas had allegedly repurposed as a command centre.
The IOF always uses the excuse of Hamas using hospitals to destroy critical public health infrastructure in Gaza. The IOF and Israel Security Agency (ISA) “vowed to continue operations” against “terrorist organisations to protect Israeli citizens” on the fourth day of their renewed offensive.
In parallel, strikes hit southern Lebanon, where the IDF claimed to have destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers and underground infrastructure in the Beqaa area. Israel’s broader strategy, per military statements, is to eliminate threats preemptively—a rationale that has drawn sharp criticism for its elastic interpretation of self-defence.
“Complete disintegration of body cells”: Gaza’s hospitals overwhelmed
For Palestinians, the offensive’s resumption has meant the carnage of a new order. Since Tuesday, Gaza’s hospitals have received 591 dead and 1,042 injured, according to the territory’s Government Media Office. Over 70% are children, women, and elderly civilians. Dr Marwan Al-Hums, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, described injuries unseen in prior phases of the war.
“The majority of the martyrs arriving at the hospitals in the Gaza Strip suffer from 100% burns and amputations across their entire bodies,” Dr Al-Hums said in a statement.
“There are large numbers of dismembered bodies and severe burns, which are the predominant characteristics of the injuries,” he added.
“Since March 18, the bombing has been unprecedented in terms of intensity and the types of weapons used,” he alleged.
He attributed the trauma to new American-supplied weapons, which Palestinian health authorities claim cause cellular disintegration.
“‘Israel’ is using new American weapons after replenishing its stockpiles, leading to the complete disintegration of body cells,” Dr Al-Hums said.
“Many of the injuries arrive in a state of ‘amputation without bleeding’ due to the complete burning of limbs,” the doctor added, highlighting the brutality exhibited by Israel’s renewed offensive targeting civilians in Gaza.
“Despite limited resources, medical teams are attempting to reconstruct damaged body parts to preserve the possibility of fitting prosthetic limbs in the future,” he said, expressing slight hope that the injured will survive the ongoing genocide that has not spared hospitals.
With Gaza’s sole DNA lab destroyed by Israeli strikes, families identify victims through clothing scraps or body parts, the doctor told the Safa News Agency.
“The Ministry of Health in Gaza does not have laboratories to test the nature of the chemical materials used, but it possesses comprehensive evidence that international institutions can analyse,” he said.
“The only DNA testing laboratory, which was used to identify martyrs, was bombed by ‘israel’, forcing families to recognise their loved ones through body remains or clothing,” Dr Al-Hums said.
“The international community bears responsibility for identifying unknown martyrs and investigating the nature of the weapons used by ‘israel’ in its extermination of Palestinians,” Dr Al-Hums told Safa News Agency.
Systematic targeting or collateral damage?
The Government Media Office in Gaza accused Israel of conducting “dozens of massacres” through direct, unannounced strikes on homes. It condemned the “deliberate targeting of civilians as part of a systematic genocide”, citing fuel shortages and disabled rescue equipment that leave hundreds buried under rubble.
“This brutal aggression reflects the occupation’s intention to complete its genocide amid American support and disgraceful international silence,” it said.
Israeli occupation officials dismiss such claims, insisting Hamas embeds itself in civilian zones. Yet the scale of non-combatant casualties—1,633 confirmed casualties in 72 hours—strains this defence.
The IOF’s own figures avoid disaggregating militant and civilian deaths, a statistical opacity that fuels allegations of indiscriminate force.
Humanitarian paralysis
Even before Israel’s renewed offensive, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was acute. The January ceasefire had barely eased a siege that, since October 2023, has starved 2.1m Palestinians of food, medicine, and clean water. Now, with crossings shuttered and fuel reserves depleted, hospitals ration generator power while surgeons attempt “reconstructive procedures to preserve the possibility of prosthetic limbs”, fighting against adversities.
The Government Media Office called for “urgent action to open border crossings and allow medical aid to save what remains of life in Gaza”. But with Israel insisting Hamas diverts aid—and the United States continuing weapons shipments—the prospect of relief dims.
International complicity and the crisis of conscience
Gaza’s authorities hold both Israel and the US administration “fully responsible for continued mass killings and ethnic cleansing”. The charge resonates with human-rights groups, which note that American-made bombs account for 70% of ordnance dropped on Gaza since 2023. Yet Western governments remain mum on the atrocities while roaring on the Ukraine front. Moreover, US President Donald Trump’s proposal to occupy the Gaza Strip, evict its people to other countries and develop its real estate has clearly shown western complicity in the crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s renewed offensive targeting Gaza.
For Palestinians, this inertia compounds their despair. “The occupation’s aggression will neither intimidate us nor break our steadfastness,” Gaza’s media office declared—a defiance tempered by exhaustion. As Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza enters its fourth day, the enclave’s survival hinges on a ceasefire the world seems unwilling to enforce.
