Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

A Conservative shadow minister has been criticised for falsely claiming in parliament that a British imam had called for victory for Hamas and celebrated the 7 October attacks.

Mims Davies, shadow minister for women and shadow secretary of state for Wales, levelled the accusations against Imam Adam Kelwick on Wednesday during a meeting of parliament.

Kelwick, who is imam at Liverpool's Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, attended an iftar hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street last week.

Afterwards, false claims circulated online that he had prayed for Hamas, which he vehemently rebukes.

"The statement made in parliament was false, misleading and defamatory," Kelwick told Middle East Eye on Thursday.

"I have never, and would never, express support for any terrorist organisation. My work speaks for itself, and will always be rooted in promoting harmony and bringing people together."

Read more: Conservative shadow minister falsely claims British imam supported Hamas attack

Forty Holocaust survivors and their descendants have signed a letter denouncing the Metropolitan Police for calling in Stephen Kapos, 87, for questioning about a pro-Palestine protest in London on 18 January. 

Kapos is a survivor of the Holocaust who was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1937. He has regularly attended marches in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza since Israel's war on the territory began. 

Earlier this month, the Met police handed out letters to a number of prominent activists, calling them in for questioning over their alleged roles in the march in late January. 

They include Kapos, actor Khalid Abdalla, and officers from the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmement and Friends of al-Aqsa. 

A protest will take place outside Charing Cross police station at 2pm on Friday, when Kapos is due to be interviewed. 

Read more: Holocaust survivors denounce UK police for questioning Stephen Kapos

Israel's renewed attacks on Gaza starting on 18 March have killed a total of 506 people and injured 909, the Palestinian health ministry reported. The majority of the victims are women and children, according to the ministry.

The ministry also said at least 85 Palestinians have been killed and 133 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn.

This brings the total death toll in Gaza since 7 October 2023 to 49,617, with 112,950 injured.

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.

At least 95 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces since dawn on Thursday, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

The Israeli army has started a ground operation in the area of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, it said in a statement.

Hamas positions were attacked before launching the ground operation, it added.

More than 710 Palestinians have been killed and 900 wounded in the 48 hours since Israel restarted its offensive on Gaza, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.

The families of the Israeli captives held in Gaza have said they were “furious” at the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to postpone a security cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday that was expected to discuss the fate of their relatives.

"The hostages' families were furious this morning that the security cabinet meeting discussing the fate of our loved ones that was scheduled for tonight has been postponed," the families said in a statement on Thursday.

“The families demanded at the start of the week, and throughout all the past months, an urgent meeting with the prime minister and cabinet. Not a peep and not an answer.”

According to Israeli media, the meeting on Gaza initially slated for Thursday evening will be pushed back until next week.

Five staff members of the UN Palestinian relief agency have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past few days, according to the agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini.

“In the past few days another five Unrwa staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement on X.

“Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air and sea for the third day. We are fearing that the worst is yet to come given the ongoing ground invasion separating the north from the south,” he added.

#Gaza: Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air & sea for the third day.
We are fearing that the worst is yet to come given the ongoing ground invasion separating the north from the south.

Evacuation orders forcing people to flee were issued impacting tens of thousands of…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 20, 2025

"I am horrified by the death and critical injuries of [UN] colleagues when their compound was struck in Gaza today," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a post on X on Thursday.

"I condemn all attacks against UN personnel and call for a full investigation," he added.

Guterres did not specify who was responsible for the attack.

I am horrified by the death and critical injuries of @UN @UNOPS colleagues when their compound was struck in Gaza today.

I condemn all attacks against UN personnel and call for a full investigation.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 19, 2025

Israeli forces arrested five people across the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, the nearby town of Dura, and the Fawwar refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported.

Another 14 were arrested in the village of Husan and the nearby Dheisheh refugee camp, located in the governorate of Bethlehem, the agency said.

During the raid in Husan, Israeli forces also temporarily detained about 20 people, subjecting them to “harsh” interrogations, according to the report.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke over the phone, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry.

Top diplomats from key mediating countries of the talks between Israel and Hamas discussed efforts to revive the agreement and implement its three phases, according to a ministry statement. They also explored ways to advance the Arab-led Gaza reconstruction plan.

“The two ministers agreed on the importance of continuing joint coordination between the two countries to contain rising tensions in the region and to work together toward launching a political settlement that ensures long-term regional stability through the establishment of a Palestinian state as a final resolution to the conflict,” it added.

Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, said Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 710 and injured 900 Palestinians since Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Many of the wounded have died due to a lack of urgent medical care, as essential equipment and medicines remain in short supply, Al-Daqran said.

Around 70 percent of those injured are women and children, and most of their injuries are serious, he added.

A Hamas delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo today to meet with senior Egyptian officials on efforts to reach a new ceasefire deal in Gaza, according to a report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The newspaper reported that an Israeli delegation made a short visit to Cairo on Wednesday night to meet with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Hassan Rashad, after Cairo presented a new ceasefire proposal in Gaza on Tuesday.

Hamas sources said the group is ready to release Israeli captives, explaining that the group did not reject the proposal of US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, but rather accepted it on the condition that it included an immediate transition to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which includes ending the war.

However, Hamas was surprised by Witkoff's adoption of the same position as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who seeks the release of all captives without implementing the requirements of the agreement.

According to the report, the Egyptian proposal represents a "bridge" for the differences and a middle ground between the proposal previously agreed to by Hamas, which called for the release of American-Israeli soldier Alexander Idan and the bodies of five prisoners, and the proposal put forward by Witkoff, which called for the release of half the living captives and half the captives' bodies.

US President Donald Trump's administration has detained an Indian man studying at Washington's Georgetown University and is seeking to deport him after deeming him a harm to US foreign policy, the student's lawyer said on Wednesday.

The US Department of Homeland Security accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to Hamas and claimed that he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, according to a statement it shared with Fox News.

The statement did not cite evidence for its claims against Suri, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, living in the US on a student visa and is married to an American citizen.

It said Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Suri's activities "rendered him deportable".

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

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

• The Israeli attacks overnight have flattened at least 11 residential buildings across the Gaza Strip, killing 71 Palestinians, including newborn babies, children and women, according to Al Jazeera.

• Yemen's Houthi rebels said they launched a hypersonic missile at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile before it entered the country’s territory.

• French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have agreed to co-chair a conference on the two-state solution “to help revive a political perspective for both Israelis and Palestinians”.

• The US military air strikes hit Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen for the fifth night in a row. The attack on the province of Hodeidah and a wedding hall under construction in the capital Sanaa injured several people.

• The Israeli military has continued raids and carried out arrests across the occupied West Bank.

• The UN’s humanitarian aid chief Tom Fletcher has called the killing of a UN staff member and the wounding of five others in an attack in Gaza “infuriating,” said the UN demands “answers.”

• Palestine’s mission to the United Nations called UN Security Council to "stop Israeli war machine", saying any failure to do so "will further undermine any shred of credibility the Security Council might still have.”