Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• An Israeli air strike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis has killed at least three Palestinians, Al Jazeera has reported.
• At least 26 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry, bringing the total to 921 people killed since Israel resumed the war on 18 March and 50,277 since 7 October 2023.
• Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has warned that "food is rotting" at the Gaza border as "all entry points" to the enclave are closed.

Our live blog is now closed until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim on Friday said the "deliberate and brutal massacre" by Israel of killing more than a dozen first responders and aid workers in Gaza "will not weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people, nor will they deter us from our legitimate struggle for self-determination." Medics were only able to retrieve one intact body from the scene, and have called off the search for the remains of others as Israel continued firing on the area. 

- At the same time, Naim indicated that there may be progress on the Gaza ceasefire talks as Eid al-Fitr approaches, adding that the proposal now on the table is intended to renew “negotiations on the second phase, which must lead to a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

- Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has been tasked with approaching multiple African nations to ask them to take Palestinians from Gaza, Axios reported on Friday. Talks have already taken place with Somalia and South Sudan on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the report said. 

- The US has said that responsibility falls on Lebanese forces to "disarm Hezbollah". The comments by the State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce followed the Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon earlier in the day, after Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from the vicinity. 

- US bombs continued to pound parts of Yemen for a second week, with air strikes hitting al-Sawad, south of the capital Sanaa on Friday. There were eight bombing raids on the area, the spokesperson for the health ministry said. 

- Award-winning Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha said on Friday that he has cancelled all his US speaking events because he "felt unsafe traveling, especially after watching students and university professors abducted on the street just in front of other people". Abu Toha is the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza and has been interviewed by major US news outlets. 

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim on Friday said the "deliberate and brutal massacre" by Israel of killing more than a dozen first responders and aid workers in Gaza "will not weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people, nor will they deter us from our legitimate struggle for self-determination."

An Israeli blockade of a site in the al-Baraksat area of Rafah in southern Gaza this week left 15 people trapped inside. All were either members of the civil defence team or Unrwa staff. 

Only one intact body was retrieved from the scene. No one made it out alive. 

"We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for this premeditated massacre and demand that the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and all relevant human rights bodies take immediate and concrete action to hold the perpetrators accountable," Naim said in a statement.

"The continued failure of the international community to enforce accountability has only emboldened the occupation regime to escalate its war crimes with impunity. These atrocities will not weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people, nor will they deter us from our legitimate struggle for self-determination and national liberation."

More than 30 US Democratic lawmakers have slammed the Trump administration’s “disturbing” arrest of Tufts University student and Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk for her “pro-Palestine” views.

“The rationale for this arrest appears to be this student’s expression of her political views. We are calling for full due process in this case and are seeking answers about this case and about ICE’s policy that has led to the identification and arrest of university students with valid legal status,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent on Thursday to Trump’s cabinet officials.

The letter was sent to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons.

Read more: Lawmakers ask Trump administration to spell out laws used to revoke Turkish national's visa

A senior spokesperson for Hamas on Friday suggested there may be progress on the Gaza ceasefire talks as Eid al-Fitr approaches. 

“We hope that the coming days will bring a real breakthrough in the war situation, following intensified communications with and between mediators in recent days,” Basem Naim said in a statement.

He added that the proposal now on the table is intended to renew “negotiations on the second phase, which must lead to a complete end to the war and the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

US bombs continued to pound parts of Yemen for a second week, with air strikes hitting al-Sawad, south of the capital Sanaa on Friday.

There were eight bombing raids on the area, the spokesperson for the health ministry said. 

Washington maintains these are Houthi military targets, and it has shown doubt about the mounting number of casualties announced by the local health ministry. 

لحظة شن غارات جوية أميركية على منطقة السواد جنوبي العاصمة اليمنية #صنعاء #اليمن pic.twitter.com/XBJG8rJMXg

— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) March 28, 2025

The Economist magazine is coming under fire from pro-Israeli voices on social media for its critical look at Israel's expansionist agenda across the Middle East.

The latest issue features a cover with the headline "Israel's hubris" and an illustration of Israeli flags planted across fields as far as the eye can see. 

Our cover in the Middle East this week looks at a newly unrestrained Israel. It wants to reshape the region; its foes can no longer deter it, and its friends will not dissuade it. Yet doing so puts enormous strain on domestic cohesion, foreign alliances and the Jewish diaspora. pic.twitter.com/yGpzoWodCb

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) March 28, 2025

Israel is defending its people and interests by responding to rocket attacks from "terrorists in Lebanon" as part of the November cessation of hostilities agreement, Washington said on Friday. 

The comments followed the Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon earlier in the day after it said it intercepted a rocket fired from the vicinity. 

"The Government of Lebanon is responsible for disarming Hezbollah," State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters. "The reason that any attacks have happened is because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon. That is a violation of the cessation of hostilities."

"Israel has to respond as the United States would have to respond," Bruce said. "We stand by Israel." 

US Senator Bernie Sanders announced on Thursday that he will force votes on resolutions that would block arms sales to Israel due to an escalating humanitarian crisis amid an Israeli blockade of aid to Gaza.

The Independent senator for Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats, plans next week to force votes on two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) he has introduced to block the $8.8bn worth of arms sales that President Donald Trump's administration has pledged to Israel.

Read more: A JRD can help force a vote because it only gives five calendar days for a committee to consider the resolution

Award-winning Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha said on Friday that he has cancelled all his US speaking events because he "felt unsafe traveling, especially after watching students and university professors abducted on the street just in front of other people".

Abu Toha is the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza and has been interviewed by major US news outlets. 

"I had 16 events scheduled for the next five weeks (at Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and Cornell among other places). You cannot imagine how much I was waiting to meet you all," he wrote on X. 

"I even don’t feel safe going out to pick up my kids from school. These threats made online against me and my family are vile." 

Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has been tasked with approaching multiple African nations to ask them to take Palestinians from Gaza, Axios reported on Friday. 

Talks have already taken place with Somalia and South Sudan on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the report said. 

The move follows last month's proposal by US President Donald Trump to expel Palestinians from the enclave to turn it into a US-bankrolled beach resort. 

The move was strongly denounced by the international community. 

The UN Human Rights office has said Israel is violating international law by forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza under "mandatory evacuation orders".

The Israeli army has issued ten such orders across Gaza since resuming it's war on the enclave last week. 

"These evacuations fail to comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law," UN human rights spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan said on Friday.

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Israel is not taking any measures to provide accommodation for the evacuated population, nor ensure that these evacuations are conducted in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition," Kheetan said.

"We are deeply concerned about the shrinking space for civilians in Gaza who are being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army from large swathes of territory."

Over half of northern Gaza appears to be under expulsion orders, while those who have been newly displaced from Rafah in the south have been forced to go to al-Mawasi, an area which has frequently been bombed by Israeli forces.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a civilian vehicle west of Khan Younis, Wafa news agency reported on Friday.

According to the report, Mahmoud Adwan and Ismail Shakshak were killed when an Israeli drone fired at their vehicle in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said it has cancelled the search for eight of its crew members who went missing following an Israeli attack in Rafah.

“The search mission for our crew members has been cancelled, and the rescue team returned without finding any bodies,” PRCS told Al Jazeera.

Nine PRCS and Gaza's Civil Defence crew members went missing on Sunday while on a rescue mission during a days-long Israeli siege on northern Rafah's Tel al-Sultan.

PRCS said it lost contact with the team after Israeli forces open-fired on them as they were on their way to treat the wounded on Sunday. It reported that one of the crew members was released after being severely beaten.

Earlier on Friday, PRCS and the Civil Defence confirmed they had recovered the body of Anwar Abdul Hamid al-Attar, a humanitarian mission officer.

The Civil Defence reported that its staff are “experiencing great shock” following the recovery of Attar’s body, which they said was “torn apart”.

The United States issued on Friday fresh sanctions aimed at Hezbollah that target five individuals and three entities.

The State Department said in a statement that the sanctions targeted Hezbollah's finance team, "which oversees commercial projects and oil smuggling networks that generate revenue for" the group.

The sanctions' targets included family members and close associates of prominent Hezbollah officials, the State Department said.

Reporting by Reuters