Massacre at 2 A.M.: Israel Resumes Indiscriminate Attacks Against Gaza, Killing Over 400 People

Israel says President Donald Trump green lit a scorched-earth bombing of Gaza that wiped out entire families and killed dozens of infants and other children.

The morgue of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on March 18, 2025. Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Editor’s note: Due to the ongoing Israeli attacks, Abubaker Abed relayed his reporting and eyewitness account to Jeremy Scahill by phone and text messages.

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA—The U.S.-backed Israeli government resumed its intense genocidal attacks on Gaza early Tuesday morning, unleashing a massive wave of indiscriminate military strikes across the Strip and killing more than 410 people, including scores of children and women, according to local health officials. The massacre resulted in one of the largest single-day death tolls of the past 17 months, and also killed several members of Gaza's government and a member of Hamas's political bureau. The Trump administration said it was briefed ahead of the strikes, which began at approximately 2 a.m. local time, and that the U.S. fully supports Israel’s attacks.

“The sky was filled with drones, quadcopters, helicopters, F-16 and F-35 warplanes. The firing from the tanks and vehicles didn’t stop,” said Abubaker Abed, a contributing journalist for Drop Site News who reports from Deir al-Balah, Gaza. “I didn’t sleep last night. I had a pang in my heart that something awful would happen. At 2 a.m., I tried to close my eyes. Once it happened, four explosions shook my home. The sky turned red and became heavily shrouded with plumes of smoke.”

Abubaker said Israel’s attacks began last night with four strikes in Deir al-Balah. “Mothers’ wails and children's screams echoed painfully in my ears. They struck a house near us. I didn’t know who to call. I couldn’t feel my knees. I was shivering with fear, and my family were harshly awakened,” he said. “My mother couldn’t take a breath. My father searched around for me. We gathered in the middle of our home, knowing our end may be near. That’s the same feeling we have had for the 16 months of intense bombings and attacks. The nightmare has chased us again.”

The Israeli attacks pummeled cities across Gaza—from Rafah and Khan Younis in the south to Deir al-Balah in the center, and Gaza City in the north, where Israel carried out some of the heaviest bombing in areas already reduced to an apocalyptic landscape. Since the “ceasefire” took effect in January, more than half a million Palestinians returned to the north and many of them have been living in makeshift shelters or on the rubble of their former homes.

Hospitals that already suffer from catastrophic damage from 16 months of relentless Israeli attacks and a dire lack of medical supplies struggled to handle the influx of wounded people, and local authorities issued an emergency call for blood donations.

Late Tuesday morning, Dr. Abdul-Qader Weshah, a senior emergency doctor at Al-Awda Hospital in Al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, described the situation. “We’ve just received another influx of injuries following a nearby strike. We’ve dealt with them. We are just preparing ourselves for more casualties as more bombings are expected to happen,” he told Drop Site News. “Since the morning, we were horrified and awoke to the screams and pain of people. We’ve been treating many people, children and women in particular.”

Weshah said they have had to transfer some of the wounded to other hospitals because of a lack of medical supplies. “We don’t have the means. Gaza’s hospitals are devoid of everything. Here at the hospital, we lack everything, including basic necessities like disinfectants and gauze. We don’t have enough beds for the casualties. We don’t have the capacity to treat the wounded. X-ray devices, magnetic resonance imaging, and simple things like stitches are not available. The hospital is in an unprecedented state of chaos. The number of medical crews is not enough. Overwhelmed with injuries, we’re horrified and we don’t know why we are speaking to the world. We’re working with less than the bare minimum in our hands. We need doctors, devices and supplies, and circumstances to do our job.”

“Every minute, a wounded person dies due to a lack of resources,” Al-Shifa hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Indonesia Hospital morgue in Beit Lahia, Gaza on March 18, 2025. Photo by Abdalhkem Abu Riash/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Dr. Zaher Al-Wahidi, the Director of the Information Unit at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told Drop Site Tuesday afternoon that 174 children and 89 women were killed in the Israeli attacks. Local health officials and witnesses said that the death toll is expected to rise dramatically because dozens of people are believed to be buried under the rubble of the structures where they were sleeping when the bombing began. “We can hear the voices of the victims under the rubble, but we can’t save them,” said a medical official at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Video posted on social media by Palestinians inside Gaza portrayed unspeakable scenes of the lifeless bodies of infants and small children killed in the bombings.

Zinh Dahdooh, a dental student from Gaza City, posted an audio recording she said was of her neighbors screaming as their shelter was bombed, trapping them in the destruction. “Tonight, they bombed our neighbors,” she wrote on the social media site X. “They kept screaming until they died, and no ambulance came for them. How long are we supposed to live in this fear? How long!”

According to local health officials, many strikes hit buildings or homes housing multiple generations of families. “Israel in its strikes has wiped out at least six families. One in my hometown. The others are from Khan Younis, Rafah, and Gaza City. Some families have lost five or ten members. Others have lost around 20,” Abubaker reported. “We talk about families killed from the children to the old. The Gharghoon family was bombed today in Rafah. The strikes have killed the father and his two daughters. Their mom and grandparents along with their uncles and aunts were also murdered, erasing the entire family from the civil registry. We are talking about the erasure of entire families. Among Israel's attacks in Deir al-Balah, Israel bombed the homes of the Mesmeh, Daher, and Sloot families. More than ten people, including seven women, from the Sloot family were killed, wiping them out entirely. The same has happened to the Abu-Teer, Barhoom, and other families. This is extermination by design. This is genocide."

On Tuesday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed that “Abu Hamza,” the spokesman of its military wing, Al Quds Brigades, had been killed along with his wife and other family members.

A Hellish Scene

Israeli officials said they had been given a “green light” by President Donald Trump to resume heavy bombing of Gaza because of Hamas’s refusal to obey Trump’s directive to release all Israeli captives immediately. “All those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News. “All hell will break loose.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement asserting that “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.” Israeli media reported that the decision to resume heavy strikes against Gaza was made a week ago and was not in response to any imminent threat posed by Hamas. Israel, which has repeatedly violated the ceasefire that went into effect January 19, has sought to create new terms in a transparent effort to justify blowing up the deal entirely.

“This is unconscionable,” said Muhannad Hadi the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “A cease-fire must be reinstated immediately. People in Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering." Compounding the crisis in Gaza’s hospitals, Israel recently began blocking the entry of international medical workers to the Strip at unprecedented rates as part of a sweeping new policy that severely limits the number of aid organizations Israel will permit to operate in Gaza.

Plumes of smoke from central Gaza just as Israel began its heavy bombing of Gaza on Monday night. Photo: Abubaker Abed.

Abubaker Abed described the scene he witnessed from his home in central Gaza:

“As we were sitting all in the same room, the shells never stopped. The sustained gunfire was horrific. The planes and tanks didn’t cease firing. The buzzing of the drones intensified. It was a hellish scene. It kept going like this until now and it hasn’t stopped.

“Two helicopters appeared in the sky, hovering overhead. They fired multiple times and kept moving in circles, terrorizing people. Then they left the sky and a heavy bombardment struck nearby. Ambulance sirens are still ringing deep in my ears. Medical workers are rushing to the bombed-out areas.

“It seemed like the firing of shells would never end. It was the most terrible hour I’ve lived, even worse than the nearly year and a half of the genocidal war against us.”

Last night, after the attacks were underway, the Israeli military posted messages on social media in Arabic ordering Palestinians in areas throughout the Strip to “evacuate” to areas Israel claims will be designated as “safe zones.” Throughout the war, Israel has repeatedly bombed areas where it told Palestinians to flee. These orders, which also declare large areas along Gaza’s border with Israel no-go zones for Palestinians, indicate that Israel may be considering redeploying its ground forces deeper into the eastern areas of Gaza.

Israel posted a warning in Arabic on X ordering Palestinians in several areas to "evacuate immediately." Source: Israel military on X.

“Israel starves and then kills children.”

Since it signed the ceasefire deal with Hamas on January 17, Netanyahu has waged a campaign of sabotage and provocation, openly violating the terms of the agreement by hindering or outright blocking the delivery of aid into the Strip. While food and other supplies were permitted to enter Gaza throughout the first 42-day phase of the deal, Israel refused to allow almost any of the 60,000 mobile homes and only a fraction of the 200,000 tents to enter Gaza. Israel also continued to conduct drone strikes and other military attacks in Gaza throughout the ceasefire, killing at least 130 Palestinians. On March 2, following the end of the first phase, Israel announced a total blockade on any aid, including food and medical supplies to the Strip and resumed its policy of using starvation as a weapon of war. On March 9, Israel also cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, forcing a major desalination plant to slash its water output severely limiting the amount of drinking water available to 600,000 people in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.

Abubaker reports that since Israel imposed a full spectrum blockade on Gaza, food and other supplies have rapidly dwindled and prices have skyrocketed. He said a single potato now costs $4 and an onion $2, if you can find them. “We didn’t know what to eat for Suhoor. We had some bread that we kept for many days to eat with some white cheese,” he said. “We’re running out of food, as is the entire Strip.” The families killed in Tuesday’s attacks by Israel “had nothing to eat and then they were bombed and killed,” Abubaker added. “Israel starves and then kills children.”

Israel, clearly emboldened by what it claims was a side agreement with the Trump administration that it could resume war if it decided the ceasefire was not in its interests, refused to send negotiators to work out details for implementing the second phase of the Gaza deal. According to the agreement signed by Israel, those talks were set to begin on February 3. During this second 42-day period, Hamas agreed to release all remaining Israeli captives held in the Strip and Israel was to withdraw all of its remaining occupation forces from Gaza. Netanyahu made clear from the beginning he did not intend to abide by any agreement beyond the first phase and assured his national security cabinet that he would seek the release of as many Israeli captives as possible without abiding by the original terms for a second and third phase of the deal to which Israel agreed. Instead, Israel refused to send senior negotiators to technical talks and imposed entirely new terms and demands on Hamas.

“Netanyahu’s decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the prisoners of the occupation and a death sentence against them,” said Izzat al-Risheq, a founding member of Hamas’s political bureau: “The enemy will not achieve through war and destruction what it has failed to achieve through negotiations.”

For the past week, international mediators from the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt have been meeting with Israel and Hamas to discuss a path to resuming the negotiation process. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, billionaire businessman Steve Witkoff, presented what he characterized as a bridge proposal that would have extended the ceasefire through the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. As negotiations continued, he and the Israeli government accused Hamas of rejecting the proposal. “President Trump has made it clear that Hamas will either release hostages immediately, or pay a severe price,” Witkoff said last Friday. “Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not. Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes.”

Hamas officials have said they entered the new round of negotiations in good faith and indicated they were willing to release Edan Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who was serving in the IDF when he was taken by Hamas fighters during the October 7 attacks. The group said it would also release the bodies of four deceased captives who held U.S. passports. While the U.S. and Israel have accused Hamas of rejecting a deal, Hamas has consistently maintained that it has abided by the terms to which it agreed in the original deal and has demanded international mediators compel Israel to do the same. “Hamas adhered to the agreement until the last moment and was keen to continue it, but Netanyahu, looking for a way out of his internal crises, preferred to reignite the war at the expense of the blood of our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

Update: Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 9:27 a.m.: This story has been updated to include specific numbers of children and women killed in the Israeli attacks Tuesday.

Update #2: Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 9:49 a.m.: This story was updated to include Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s confirmation that the spokesman for its military wing was killed.