War returns to Gaza as Israel violates the ceasefire; bombarding Gaza on the night of March 17th and killing 400 Palestinians.

Last night, Israel sent a bombardment of rockets into the Gaza Strip killing at least 404 and injuring over 600.

This comes two weeks after Israel shut down electricity and halted humanitarian aid to Gaza. This also coincided with the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan where Muslims go without food and drink for around 12 hrs. The electricity shut down was being used to provide clean drinking water to half a million Palestinians.

This comes in response to several developments. One of which is the Israeli claim that Hamas and their allies Palestinian Islamic Jihad(PIJ) had grown their forces in preparation for raids on IDF soldiers inside Gaza as well as Israeli communities near the border. The other is Hamas and their allies refusing to hand over hostages until Israel had met its commitments to let in certain amounts of aid in various forms. Attacks started at 2:30 AM local time on March 18th, the same day Israeli PM Netanyahu was set to face corruption trials in Israel. The PM is deeply unpopular in Israel, a survey released on 13th March by the Israeli Democracy Institute showed that 87% hold him responsible for the security failures of October 7th, and 73% want him to resign now or after the war ends. More polls show that some 70% of Israelis want the ceasefire to continue at least until all hostages are released, even if Hamas remains a functioning organisation.

Additionally, the attacks left five Hamas government officials and the PIJ spokesmen dead. That’s about 67 civilians dead for every target.