Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Airstrikes on Gaza have led to reports of 330 deaths so far as Israel says it has aimed at dozens of Hamas targets in its heaviest assault on the territory since a ceasefire took effeect
Israel has battered Gaza with a wave of airstrikes killing hundreds of people in its war on Hamas.
Hospitals initially reported at least 235 people killed, including women and children but reports now say this has risen to at least 330, during the heaviest assault on the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January. It has shattered a period of relative calm during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised the prospect of a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire. Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand stating Israel would from now on “act against Hamas with increasing military strength”.
People displaced by conflict and fleeing from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip arrive carrying their belongings in Gaza City on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
The administration of President Donald Trump was consulted on Monday by Israel on its deadly strikes in Gaza, a White House spokesperson told Fox News’ “Hannity” show.
“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview.
Palestinian medics in Gaza reported dozens of people were killed in the aftermath of a series of the most violent air attacks by Israel on the Palestinian enclave since a ceasefire was reached on January 19 between Israel and Hamas.
A senior Hamas official said Israel had unilaterally overturned the ceasefire agreement.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAGenocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
AFPTV footage shows smoke plumes rising after the U.S. bombed Houthi targets in Sanaa, Yemen on March 15, 2025. (Photo: Osama Abdulrahman/AFP via Getty Images)
“U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran,” said one peace group.
This is a developing news story… Please check back for possible updates.
U.S. President Donald Trumpannounced Saturday that he had ordered the military to “launch decisive and powerful” action against the Houthis in war-torn Yemen, a glaring contradiction of what critics have called the Republican’s “anti-war charade.”
The U.S. bombing follows Trump redesignating the Houthis—also known as Ansar Allah—as a terrorist organization shortly after returning to office in January and comes just days after the group renewed a blockade on Israeli ships.
Shuaib Almosawa reported earlier this week for Drop Site News that “the military spokesperson for the Houthi-led government in Yemen on Tuesday announced the resumption of the naval blockade targeting Israeli ships traversing Yemen’s waterways, following the expiration of its deadline for Israel to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.”
“In a televised statement broadcast by Almasirah TV channel, Houthi spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that the blockade on Israeli ships now covers Yemen’s waterways in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait,” according to Almosawa, a freelance journalist based in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Trump’s lengthy Saturday post on his Truth Social platform did not explicitly mention Israel or Gaza. He said in part that “funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.”
Yemen has made clear that the sea blockade will end when the Israeli genocide and blockade of Gaza end. @realDonaldTrump knows this but is doing this for Israel, while pretending it is for America and Americans. https://t.co/ooaGdflXTJ
Almosawa reported Saturday that at least nine civilians have been killed in Trump’s new bombing campaign.
BREAKING: Drop Site’s @Shuaibalmosawa reports from Sana’a, where U.S. strikes on Yemen’s capital have killed nine civilians and wounded nine others, according to a Health Ministry spokesperson who spoke with him.
The Houthi media office said the U.S. strikes hit “a residential neighborhood” in Sanaa’s northern district of Shouab. Sanaa residents said at least four airstrikes rocked the Eastern Geraf neighborhood in Shouab district, terrifying women and children in the area.
“The explosions were very strong,” said Abdallah al-Alffi. “It was like an earthquake.”
The United States, Israel, and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen. Israel’s military declined to comment.
Trump noted the bombings under former U.S. President Joe Biden, saying Saturday that his predecessor’s “response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.”
The U.S.-based peace group CodePink called out another part of Trump’s post, saying that he “claimed that the Houthis have waged an ‘unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism’ against America and other ships, aircraft, and drones. However, he conveniently ignores critical context behind these actions. The Houthis’ attacks on foreign cargo ships began in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, aimed at deterring the continuation of Israel’s ongoing plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine.”
“This campaign ceased when a cease-fire was finally put in place, only to resume due to Israel’s ongoing violations of the cease-fire agreement,” CodePink continued, noting Israeli strikes that just reportedly killed aid workers and journalists in Gaza. “Instead of confronting the root causes of this violence, U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran.”
“CodePink and its allies demand an immediate halt to U.S. military intervention in Yemen and across the Middle East,” the group concluded. “We call on the government to prioritize peace and justice by immediately ending all military aid and funds to Israel and holding Israel accountable for breaking the cease-fire.”
Members of Congress across the political spectrum have a history of criticizing U.S. bombings of Yemen throughout its decadelong civil war as illegal. Justin Amash, a libertarian former Michigan congressman, slammed the Saturday strikes on social media.
“I’ll say it again. It is unconstitutional for President Trump to engage in acts of war in Yemen,” Amash explained. “It doesn’t matter how appropriate you think it is for the U.S. to take on Houthis or terrorists or anyone. Congress has not authorized war in Yemen. Engaging in war there is unlawful.”
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Former South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool addresses the Cape Town Press Club on December 15, 2020. (Photo: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
“It underscores that his critiques of white supremacy in the Age of Trump are perceived as threatening for one simple reason: He’s right.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has faced a flood of condemnation since announcing on social media Friday that “South Africa’s ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country.”
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates President Donald Trump,” the secretary claimed. “We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
In the post on X—the social media site owned by Elon Musk, Trump’s South Africa-born billionaire adviser—Rubio linked to an article by the right-wing news site Breitbart about Rasool saying during a Friday webinar that the U.S. president is leading global a white supremacist movement.
As examples of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement exporting its “supremacist assault,” Rasool pointed to Musk elevating Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform U.K. party, and Vice President JD Vance meeting with the leader of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party.
Responding to Rubio on X, North Carolina State University assistant teaching professor Nathan Lean said: “Ebrahim Rasool is a man of genuine decency, moral courage, and is a friend. This makes me absolutely embarrassed to be an American. And it underscores that his critiques of white supremacy in the Age of Trump are perceived as threatening for one simple reason: He’s right.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) similarly responded: “Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is a principled leader who fought alongside Nelson Mandela against apartheid and has dedicated his career to democracy, interfaith cooperation, and justice. Baseless attacks like this only serve to divide. We stand by him and his lifelong commitment to building a more just and inclusive world.”
You are a disgrace to America. The excuse that you’re just following orders will not work. https://t.co/HOCkBzOCX2
Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Al Jazeera‘s “Fault Lines,” declared that “this administration is virulently and unabashedly Islamophobic, not even trying to hide how unhinged they are as they go after people for speech.”
Rasool previously served as ambassador during the Obama administration and returned to the role shortly before Trump began his second term. Earlier this week, Semafor reported on his difficulties dealing with the current administration:
He has failed to secure routine meetings with State Department officials and key Republican figures since Trump took office in January, Washington and South African government insiders told Semafor, drawing frustration in Pretoria.
Rasool is likely to have been frozen out for his prior vocal criticism of Israel, a South African diplomat, based in Washington, told Semafor. “A man named Ebrahim, who is Muslim, with a history of pro-Palestine politics, is not likely to do well in that job right now,” said one of them. While South Africa brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice in December 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza, Rasool is nevertheless widely considered to be among the government’s most ardent pro-Palestine voices.
South African political analyst Sandile Swana told Al Jazeera on Friday that the “core of the dispute” with the diplomatic was the genocide case against U.S.-armed Israel. In the fight against apartheid, the U.S. “supported the apartheid regime,” said Swana. “Rasool continues to point out the behaviour of the United States, even now is to support apartheid and genocide.”
Other critics also pointed to the ongoing court battle over Israel’s utter destruction of Gaza and mass slaughter of Palestinians.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national executive director Nihad Awad told Rubio: “Your declaration of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool as persona non grata is a racist, Islamophobic, transparent act of retaliation for South Africa’s opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Imraan Siddiqi, a former congressional candidate in Washington who now leads the state’s branch of CAIR, said that “he stood up firmly against apartheid, so it’s no coincidence you’re punishing him in favor of an openly apartheid state.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement Saturday that “the presidency has noted the regrettable expulsion of South Africa’s ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Ebrahim Rasool.
“The presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter,” the office added. “South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America.”
The diplomat’s expulsion follows Trump signing an executive order last month that frames South Africa’s land law as “blatant discrimination” against the country’s white minority. Writing about the order for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zeb Larson and William Minter noted that “his actions echo a long history of right-wing support in the United States for racism in Southern Africa, including mobilization of support for white Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
A protester takes part in a March 12, 2025 demonstration calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, at Foley Square in New York City. (Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Betar—which the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League has blacklisted after comments like “not enough” babies were killed in Gaza—says it provided “thousands of names” for possible arrest and expulsion.
Betar, the international far-right pro-Israel group that took credit for the Department of Homeland Security’s arrest of former Columbia University graduate student and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil for protesting the annihilation of Gaza, claimed this week that it has sent “thousands of names” of Palestine defenders to Trump administration officials for possible deportation.
“Jihadis have no place in civilized nations,” Betar said on social media Friday following the publication of a Guardian article on the extremist group’s activities.
Earlier this week, Betar said: “We told you we have been working on deportations and will continue to do so. Expect naturalized citizens to start being picked up within the month. You heard it here first. Those who support jihad and intifada and originate in terrorist states will be sent back to those lands.”
Betar has been gloating about last week’s arrest of Khalil, the lead negotiator for the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest during the April 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
On Thursday, immigration officers arrested another Columbia Gaza protester, Leqaa Kordia—a Palestinian from the illegally occupied West Bank—for allegedly overstaying her expired student visa. Kordia was also arrested last April during one of the Columbia campus protests against the Gaza onslaught.
On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian doctoral student at Columbia whose visa was revoked on March 5 for alleged involvement “in activities supporting” Hamas—the Palestinian resistance group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government—used the Customs and Border Protection’s self-deportation app and, according to media reports, has left the country.
Khalil and Kordia’s arrests come as the Trump administration targets Columbia and other schools over pro-Palestinian protests under the guise of combating antisemitism, despite the Ivy League university’s violent crackdown on demonstrations and revocation of degrees from some pro-Palestine activists.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who in January signed an executive order authorizing the deportation of noncitizen students and others who took part in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, called Khalil’s detention “the first arrest of many to come.”
The Department of Justice announced Friday that it is investigating whether pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the school violated federal anti-terrorism laws. This followed Thursday’s search of two Columbia dorm rooms by DHS agents and the cancellation earlier this month of $400 million worth of funding and contracts for Columbia because the Trump administration says university officials haven’t done enough to tackle alleged antisemitism on campus.
On Friday, Betar named Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian studying philosophy at Columbia, as its next target.
Imagine if any Palestinian org tweeted something like this, they’d arrest us for incitement. Like seriously imagine I said burn Columbia down, it would make the news and I’d have FBI at my doors. But Betar continues to be a nonprofit right here in NYC. https://t.co/RW7IbJifKp
Critics have voiced alarm about Betar’s activities, pointing to the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League’s recent designation of the organization as a hate group. Founded in 1923 by the early Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Betar has a long history of extremism. Its members—who included former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin—took part in the Zionist terror campaign against Palestinian Arabs and British forces occupying Palestine in the 1940s.
Today, Betar supports Kahanism—a Jewish supremacist and apartheid movement named after Meir Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990—and is linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. The group has called for the ethnic cleansing and Israeli recolonization of Gaza. During Israel’s assault on the coastal enclave, which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case, its account on the social media site X responded to the publication of a list of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces by saying: “Not enough. We demand blood in Gaza!”
Ross Glick, who led the U.S. chapter of Betar until last month, told The Guardian that he has met with bipartisan members of Congress who support the group’s efforts, naming lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.). Glick also claimed to have the support of “collaborators” who use artificial intelligence and facial recognition to help identify pro-Palestine activists. Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said it was launching an AI-powered “catch and revoke” program to cancel the visas of international students deemed supportive of Hamas.
Betar isn’t alone in aggressively targeting Palestine defenders. The group Canary Mission—which said it is “delighted” about Khalil’s “deserved consequences”—publishes an online database containing personal information about people it deems antisemitic, and this week released a video naming five other international students it says are “linked to campus extremism at Columbia.”
Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia who was temporarily banned from campus last year after harassing university employees, and Columbia student David Lederer, have waged what Khalil called “a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign” against him and other activists.
ARC and TransCultural Exchange (@TransCulturalEx) strongly condemn far-right, Jewish nationalist group Betar US’ targeting of award-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha on social media, including its demand for his deportation. Read our statement! https://t.co/UvVUOrAdjXpic.twitter.com/2S6wpnh3kc
— ARC (Artists at Risk Connection) (@AtRiskArtists) March 14, 2025
Meanwhile, opponents of the Trump administration’s crackdown on constitutionally protected protest rights have rallied in defense of Khalil and the First Amendment. Nearly 100 Jewish-led demonstrators were arrested Thursday during a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City demanding Khalil’s release.
“We know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent,” said Sonya Meyerson-Knox, the communications director for Jewish Voice for Peace. “Come for one—face us all.”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
