Updates: UN ‘horrified’ by killing of Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli bombing

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To read about how dedicated volunteers work to help the people traumatised and displaced by Israel’s raids on the occupied West Bank, click here.

To see footage of the moment Israeli warplanes destroyed the only cancer hospital in Gaza, click here.

And you can follow all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

This live page will close soon. But, before we go, here’s a recap of recent developments:

• The Israeli army has struck two bases in Syria that hosted “military strategic capabilities”, identifying the bases as Tadmur and T4.
• Hamas has condemned Israel’s bombing and destruction of the cancer hospital in central Gaza as a “sadistic act”.
• UN chief Guterres has warned that the “relentless expansion of Israeli settlements is dramatically altering the landscape and demographics of the occupied West Bank”.
• UN human rights office in Palestine slams Israel’s new attacks on Gaza, saying air strikes and artillery shelling have struck homes, schools serving as shelters, and tents.
• The Israeli army says it shot down a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into the country’s territory.

Video posted by a Gaza journalist shows the moment several people, including two children, arrived at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City.

The Israeli strike that wounded them was carried out in the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

This video has been verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit.

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A post shared by سائد حسب الله (@m.saed.gaza)

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli Prime Minister cited mistrust between him and the head of his internal security agency, the Shin Bet, citing that as the reason for his dismissal.

Last night, the Israeli cabinet – the most right-wing government in Israel’s history – voted unanimously to remove him. However, the High Court of Justice issued an injunction today, and that means essentially blocking that decision, saying that this needs to come before an advisory committee, they need to hear both sides, they need to analyse what’s going on before any sort of decision like this can be made and before any replacement can be put in that position.

The attorney general after that sent a letter to Netanyahu saying that his government is not allowed to explore the idea of a replacement just yet. This has caused a lot of protests within Israel and it even prompted Netanyahu to speak earlier in the night saying that “there won’t be a civil war within Israel”.

Because you have a people who are divided, you have the right wing within Israel who wants to go back to war and wants to remove all the people at these top-level positions so they are replaced with confidantes of Netanyahu, and then you have the other part of the Israeli public and the Israeli opposition within the government, who say that Netanyahu is doing all of this for personal and political gain.

Video captured the moment Israeli forces blew up Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital and an adjacent medical school over what the military claims was a Hamas presence.

Watch below for the dramatic scenes:

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank. 

It’s the second consecutive day that fighters in Gaza were able to launch rockets against Israel, but also it’s the fourth time that Yemen has launched its own attacks on Israel, though none of them reached Israeli space.

The Israeli army confirmed that the most recent rocket was intercepted outside of Israeli space, though the airspace itself was disrupted at Ben Gurion airport for the fourth time this week.

This is having some sort of impact on Israel, especially within the security establishment and within the general public, wondering how fighters in Gaza are still able to have these types of capabilities after the relentless bombardments for fifteen months starting in October 2023. Nonetheless, the Israeli army has issued evacuation warnings for all the areas that they say the projectiles were coming from, and they have been conducting air strikes on those areas.

Columbia University has reportedly bowed to the Trump administration’s demands following widespread pro-Palestine protests on its New York City campus, including appointing a senior vice provost with broad authority to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies as well as the Center for Palestine Studies.

The university told the administration that it has worked hard to address “legitimate” concerns about how Jewish students were treated on campus, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The memo laid out actions the university plans to take that are part of an agreement with the Trump administration’s demands on tightening restrictions on campus protests in negotiations over $400m in federal funding.

In addition to tightening control over the Middle East Studies department and Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia agreed to ban masks and empower campus police with new authority to arrest students.

Bangladeshis protest against Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza following Friday prayers in Dhaka.

A statement on Telegram says the army’s complete destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in the central Gaza Strip “reflects the barbarity of the occupier, which persists in its genocidal campaign against our Palestinian people”.

The statement added: “The destruction of the hospital, the only one in Gaza treating cancer patients, comes after the US administration gave the criminal occupation a green light to continue its war of extermination against our Palestinian people, with complete disregard for international law.”

Hamas demanded that the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and other courts take legal action against Israel and “its criminal leaders for this barbaric and shameful act”.

A missile launched from Yemen has been intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory, the Israeli military says.

Sirens sounded across Israel in response to the launch:

A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF prior to crossing into Israeli territory.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 21, 2025

More than 500,000 Palestinian women in Gaza lack access to essential reproductive and maternal care services, the World Health Organization has warned.

Fifteen months of Israel’s war in Gaza have caused shortages of services and supplies, while lack of food and balanced nutrition are impacting children’s growth and development, the WHO said in a post on X. Since the beginning of 2025, it added, over 500 cases of severe acute malnutrition have been reported in children aged six months to five years.

“We call for the immediate resumption of the ceasefire so children, women and everyone in Gaza can have safe and uninterrupted access to health care,” the organisation wrote.

Fifteen months of conflict have severely impacted the health of women and children in #Gaza.

More than 500 000 women lack access to essential reproductive, maternal care and family planning services due to shortage of services and supplies, while lack of food and balanced… pic.twitter.com/4MSp7saOcI

— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) March 21, 2025

Israeli settlers have stormed the al-Auja Bedouin community near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, the news agency Wafa reports.

Hassan Malihat, the general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, told the agency that the settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, barged their way into the community. They brought their cattle and grazed them among residents’ homes.

Malihat said the incursion is part of a campaign against Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley, whose members the settlers are trying to displace to take over their land.

The ministry has condemned the bombing of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital as “a heinous crime” committed by Israel.

The hospital, which was built by Turkiye and operated by local authorities as a cancer treatment facility, was blown up by the Israeli army earlier today after having been rebuilt with a Turkish donation of $34m in 2017.

The ministry also said the hospital, located in the Netzarim Corridor close to Salah al-Din Street, was used as a command centre by Israeli forces during their previous military assault in central and northern Gaza.

The statement said: “The ministry emphasizes that this criminal behavior of the occupation comes in line with the systematic destruction of the health system and the completion of the episodes of genocide.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the State of Palestine is horrified by the ongoing killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since the resumption of large-scale Israeli bombardments on Monday, according to a statement by the agency.

The statement said that as of Thursday, at least 506 Palestinians had been killed this week, including 200 children and at least 112 women as per the numbers shared by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

That number has since been updated to nearly 600 killed.

“Air strikes and artillery shelling have struck homes, schools serving as shelters, and tents of internally displaced people – a pattern extensively documented by the UN Human Rights Office since October of 2023,” it added.

The agency also said the Israeli military appeared to have resumed the practice of using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas.

It stressed: “Conducting hostilities using such means and methods in densely populated areas causes civilian casualties at a mass scale and is not consistent with Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law, including abiding by the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack.”

Al Jazeera’s Redi Tlhabi has challenged ex-Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Israel’s ceasefire breach and its war on Gaza.

Israel has shattered the ceasefire with Hamas this week through extensive air raids that have killed hundreds of civilians, including at least 200 children, and the deployment of ground forces.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened the residents of Gaza with “destruction and devastation” if they did not expel Hamas.

So what lies ahead for Gaza, and is it in danger of a complete takeover?

This week on UpFront, Tlhabi speaks with Ayalon about Israel’s war in Gaza.

Watch below for more:

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the “relentless expansion of Israeli settlements is dramatically altering the landscape and demographics of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

In a six-page report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2334, a 2016 resolution demanding the halt of settlement activity by Israel on occupied Palestinian territory, Guterres noted: “Palestinians are increasingly confined into shrinking and disconnected areas, presenting an existential threat to the prospect of a contiguous, viable, independent Palestinian state.”

“Settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law,” Guterres added. “The demolition and seizure of Palestinian-owned structures entail numerous human rights violations and raise concerns about the risk of forcible transfer. I once again urge the Government of Israel to abide by its obligations under international law.”