Thu Mar 20 13:13:40 UTC 2025: ## Hamas Launches Rocket Attacks on Tel Aviv Amidst Escalating Gaza Conflict
**Gaza City, Palestinian Territories –** The escalating conflict in Gaza took a dramatic turn on Thursday, March 20, 2025, as Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israel’s renewed offensive. This marks the first significant military retaliation from Hamas since Israel resumed its air and ground operations on Wednesday, March 19th.
The Israeli army reported intercepting one projectile and confirming two others landed in an uninhabited area. However, the rocket attacks underscore the growing intensity of the conflict, which has already claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported a staggering death toll of 504 Palestinians, including over 190 children, since the beginning of the renewed Israeli assault. Graphic images from the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza showed grieving families mourning their dead. Witnesses appealed for an immediate ceasefire, pleading with the international community to intervene.
Israel, meanwhile, has intensified its ground operations, closing off Gaza’s main north-south route, Salaheddin Road. The Israeli army spokesman cited security concerns as the reason for the closure, stating that troops are expanding a security zone in the central and southern Gaza Strip. This action follows the withdrawal of American private security contractors who were deployed in February under the terms of a previous ceasefire.
The renewed violence follows the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations earlier this month. Israel had rejected Hamas’s proposal for a phased approach to a lasting ceasefire, demanding the return of all hostages before further talks.
International condemnation of the escalating violence has been widespread. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini decried the “endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals” on Gaza’s population. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the Israeli strikes a “catastrophic crime,” placing partial responsibility on the United States.
The current conflict is a resurgence of the larger conflict which began with Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,218 Israelis, mostly civilians. The overall death toll in Gaza since the start of the war, before the latest escalation, was over 48,570. The situation remains extremely volatile, and the international community is facing growing pressure to secure a lasting ceasefire and prevent further loss of life.
First Piper 