Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

France opposes any kind of annexation by Israel of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, its foreign minister said Friday, after Israel's defence minister threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas released Israeli captives.

"France is opposed to any form of annexation whether it concerns the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. We have a very clear vision of the future of the region -- a solution of two (Israeli and Palestinian) states living side-by-side in peace," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters in the eastern city of Dijon.

Reporting by AFP

Israel's Supreme Court on Friday froze the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sack the domestic intelligence agency chief, Ronen Bar, in order to review appeals filed against the dismissal.

"It is hereby ordered that a provisional measure be taken to stay the effect of the decision subject to the appeals until another decision is made," the court said in a document obtained by AFP.

It added that the freeze will remain in place until the appeals are presented to the court before 8 April.

One of the largest providers of food aid in Gaza warned on Friday that it has only enough flour left to last six more days.

"We can stretch that by giving people less, but we are talking days - not weeks," said Sam Rose of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), speaking from central Gaza during a press briefing in Geneva

Unrwa described the situation in Gaza as gravely concerning, pointing to massive reductions in the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

"Six of 25 bakeries that the World Food Programme were supporting had to close down. There are larger crowds on streets outside bakeries," Rose added.

"This is the longest period since the start of the conflict in October 2023 that no supplies whatsoever have entered Gaza. The progress we made as an aid system over the last six weeks of the ceasefire is being reversed," Rose added.

Our latest on the situation in📍#Gaza and the #WestBank:

🔹On the night between 17-18 March, the Israeli Forces resumed airstrikes and bombardments across the Gaza Strip. As a result, around 500 people were reportedly killed, including more than 170 children.

🔹The Israeli… pic.twitter.com/qscNMfKEg8

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 21, 2025

Fewer than half of the emergency vehicles operated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society are currently functional in Gaza due to fuel shortages, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.

Of 53 vehicles in the fleet, 23 remain operational after Israel halted aid supplies into Gaza - including fuel - in early March, IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa told reporters in Geneva.

"It is having a devastating impact. If an ambulance doesn't have gasoline fuel then there are entire communities that are calling the emergency services and are not getting any answer," he added.

The Israeli defence minister warned Hamas on Friday that the army will permanently seize and annex territory in Gaza if captives are not released. 

Israel Katz announced that the army will also expand the buffer zone his country has established along the the Gaza Strip's boundary with Israel. 

“The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel,” he stressed.

“I have directed the IDF [military] to expand the manoeuvre, take control of more ground and hold it permanently to protect Israeli communities and soldiers.”

Read more: Israel will annex parts of Gaza until captives freed, says defence minister

Israeli forces have blocked dozens of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, despite them having the necessary permits, Anadolu Agency reported.

Ibrahim Awad, from Yamon in the occupied West Bank, said: “I reached the [Qalandiya checkpoint, north of Jerusalem] and after they checked my ID I was denied entry for no reason.

“After I left, I received a text message on my phone stating that I was banned from entering Jerusalem due to ‘incitement’ on social media,” Awad said.

On 6 March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved tighter restrictions for Palestinians' access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Fridays during Ramadan.

Under the new restrictions, only men over 55, women over 50, and children under 12 will be allowed to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque. This decision comes amid daily incursions by hundreds of Israeli settlers into the compound.

Hamas said on Friday it is still discussing US envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal and various other ideas, with the aim of reaching a deal to release prisoners, end the war in Gaza, and achieve a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave.

Witkoff presented a "bridge" plan last week to extend the ceasefire in Gaza into April beyond Ramadan and allow time to negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to "seize more ground" in the Gaza Strip for Israel if Hamas refuses to release the captives.

Israel will use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south and implementing US President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents," Katz said, according to The Times of Israel.

Katz said he has already instructed the military to occupy additional areas of the Gaza Strip while issuing forced evacuation orders for Palestinian civilians in those areas in a bid to pressure Hamas.

Hamas says it is ready to release Israeli captives on the condition of an immediate transition to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which includes ending the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks the release of all captives without implementing the requirements of the ceasefire agreement.

At least 200 children have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its war on the enclave this week, Al Jazeera reported Unicef spokesperson in Gaza Rosalia Paulin saying.

Health authorities in Gaza said more than 590 Palestinians have been killed since Tuesday and the death toll continues to rise as Israeli air attacks and ground assaults intensify.

Israeli opposition parties Yesh Atid, National Unity, Yisrael Beytenu, and the Democrats have petitioned the High Court of Justice to block the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X that the petition argues Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision is a conflict of interest, as the Shin Bet is investigating alleged improper ties between Prime Minister’s Office staff and Qatar.

The petition also says Bar was fired only after a probe into failures surrounding the 7 October Hamas attack pointed to political leadership responsibility.

Earlier today, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel also filed a petition against Bar’s dismissal.

Israeli forces forcibly "stripped, detained, humiliated, and terrorised" two Palestinian children, after a military raid in the northern occupied West Bank last week, a children’s rights group said.

Defence for Children – Palestine (DCIP) said Ibrahim Abu Ghali, seven, and Omar Mohammed Dirar Zaben, 13, were visiting their grandparents’ home on 10 March, in the west of Jenin, when their grandmother was shot for going outside to listen for the morning call to prayer during an Israeli military raid.

Israeli soldiers detained Ibrahim, Omar, and their grandfather, forcing them to strip to their underwear at gunpoint. Their hands were bound with plastic ties, and they were left exposed in the cold for an hour before being crammed onto the floor of a military vehicle and taken to the Jalameh interrogation centre in northern Israel without their clothes.

"Forcing young children to strip, detaining them in degrading conditions, and subjecting them to psychological terror is a clear violation of international law and amounts to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.

Once they were released after 12 hours, they learned that Israeli soldiers had killed their grandmother.

Israeli forces detained Ibrahim, 7, and Omar, 13, from their grandparents' home outside Jenin for about 12 hours. Once they were released, they learned Israeli soldiers killed their grandmother. https://t.co/2OHGzrhmNM

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) March 20, 2025

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi informed other Arab leaders that he is willing to temporarily relocate half a million residents from Gaza to a designated city in the northern Sinai as part of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.

The report said the plan would require opening the border crossings between Sinai and Gaza for Palestinians who are willing to leave.

No other source has confirmed this report.

Egypt previously rejected Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza and instead proposed a $53 billion, five-year reconstruction plan to rebuild the enclave without depopulating it.

The University of California, Los Angeles, was sued on Thursday over a 2024 mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters at the height of the US campus protest movement against Israel's war on Gaza, a court filing showed.

In one of the most violent incidents from US protests related to Israel's war on Gaza, masked pro-Israel assailants, described by officials as "instigators," stormed the tent camp of pro-Palestinian protesters with clubs and poles.

The encampment occupants said fireworks were also hurled at them. The situation continued for at least three hours into the early morning of 1 May last year before police moved in and restored order. The following night, hundreds of police officers raided the encampment, arresting over 200 people.

"Not a single member of the mob attack was arrested that night, even though police and private security watched from just a few yards away as the attack raged for hours and was broadcast live to millions of people," the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles superior court, said.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza:

• The Israeli air strikes hit Gaza's Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the besieged enclave, and Gaza City and Beit Lahiya in the north overnight. Al Jazeera reports that the Israeli assault continues.

• Israel’s cabinet voted to remove Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar from his post, in what represents the first time in the country’s history an intelligence chief has been fired.

• Trump administration National Security Adviser Mike Waltz voiced his support for Israel’s renewed assault, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians since Tuesday.

• The US military has carried out air strikes on Yemen for a sixth night in a row, hitting targets in At-Tuhayta district in Hodeidah governorate.

• Lawyer of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University who was detained by US immigration authorities on Monday, said Suri and his Palestinian American wife Mapheze Saleh “have long been doxxed and smeared”.

• US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, has ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport Suri until the order is lifted.

• The Israeli military has carried out raids in several locations across the occupied West Bank, forcing more than 100 families to flee their homes in Tulkarm.

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Hamas has said that 600 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since Tuesday, when Israel resumed its war on the Strip. 

- The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive into  a neighbourhood in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. This comes as the military also confirms it is continuing its incursions into the north and central areas of the Strip late on Thursday. 

- In a statement issued in the early hours of Friday, Hamas said the "massacres" Israel is carrying out in Gaza are a responsibility for the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC) to step up and stop.

- The Canadian government on Thursday announced the allocation of nearly $70 million dollars (or $100 million Canadian) for humanitarian efforts in the West Bank and Gaza via international institutions like the UN, World Bank, and Red Cross. 

- Hamas' armed wing says it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to "the Zionist massacres against civilians" in Gaza. The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile and two others fell in an open area.

- Three ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis in Yemen were intercepted by Israel's defence system on Thursday.