Middle East latest: Israeli attack on Gaza shatters ceasefire and kills hundreds

Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying it was hitting Hamas targets in its heaviest assault on the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January. The strikes have killed more than 400 people and wounded hundreds more, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says over half the dead are women and children.

The Israeli attack could signal the full resumption of war.

Hamas — which has yet to respond militarily — warned that Israel is breaching their ceasefire and jeopardizing the roughly two dozen Israeli hostages who are believed to still be alive in Hamas captivity. The Palestinian militant group has spent weeks calling for serious talks on the ceasefire agreement’s second phase.

Both Israel and the United States blame the renewed hostilities on Hamas’ refusal to release more hostages before negotiations on ending the war proceed — which was not part of the ceasefire agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is backing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s decision to unilaterally walk away from the ceasefire Trump took credit for brokering.

Here's the latest:

Israel’s military said the missile was fired from Yemen, setting off sirens in multiple cities and towns in the country’s south, but was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have fired missiles and drones at Israel throughout the war in Gaza, in addition to their attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Tuesday’s launch toward Israel was the first since the January ceasefire took hold.

Hamas has yet to respond militarily to Tuesday’s wave of Israeli strikes.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded Israel as a “terrorist state” feeding on the “blood, lives and tears of innocent” people.

A vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Erdogan on Tuesday accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza. He pledged to increase diplomatic efforts to stop the violence and ensure a ceasefire.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that letting Israel resume its deadly strikes and block all aid to Gaza “poses catastrophic consequences for global peace and security.”

Some advocacy groups and other rights experts have accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza — charges Israel vehemently denies.

South Africa said it was “gravely concerned” by the deadly wave of airstrikes in Gaza, and raised doubts about Israel's “commitment to a permanent ceasefire as envisaged in the ceasefire plan brokered by the USA, Egypt and Qatar.”

South Africa’s post-apartheid government has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause, and has filed a case at the United Nations’ top court accusing U.S. ally Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

During a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said that Palestinians are once again being “killed indiscriminately” after Israeli strikes restarted overnight.

After the majority of the permanent members of the council condemned Israel, Mansour called on the U.N.’s highest body to act on their condemnations.

“This can never be justified and must stop immediately. I agree with you, Madame President, when you said that you have a responsibility to act,” Mansour said to Christina Markus Lassen, the Danish ambassador who is leading the council this month. “You are the Security Council. Act. Stop this criminal action. Stop them from denying our people food in the month of Ramadan, You have resolutions. Act. You have power. Act.”

He added, “Or as my friend, the ambassador of Slovenia said, you will become irrelevant.”

Tom Fletcher is demanding that Israel resume deliveries of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies to Gaza’s 2.1 million people.

The U.N. humanitarian chief told the Security Council that Israel’s block on aid deliveries since March 2 is reversing progress during the recent ceasefire, when over 4,000 supply trucks entered Gaza every week.

Since the cutoff, he said, only medical evacuations and humanitarian staff rotations have been allowed and “even that came to a halt today.” Fletcher said supplies in Gaza are being rationed.

He said the impact of Israel’s actions is serious: Israeli power cuts to southern Gaza’s desalination plant have affected 600,000 people’s clean water access, vegetable prices in the north have tripled, and six bakeries subsidized by the U.N. World Food Program have closed for lack of cooking gas.

An Israeli airstrike flattened a multistory house in Gaza City early Tuesday, killing at least 27 people from the extended family of Qraiqa, according to Palestinian medics.

More than half of the dead were women and children as young as one year old, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. They have been taken to Ahly Hospital.

The dead include two parents and their five children; a mother and her four children, four siblings and others, a list of the dead showed.

In a tense U.N. Security Council meeting, Dorothy Shea, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, defended Israel’s decision to launch a series of airstrikes that killed more than 400 Palestinians, saying Hamas’ refusal to negotiate forced the military action.

“The blame for the resumption of hostilities lies solely with Hamas,” Shea said, echoing the Trump administration’s reaction to the strikes. “It is the people of Gaza who will suffer further because of Hamas’s disregard for human life.”

Hamas alleged that Israel has not come to the table in recent weeks to initiate phase two of the ceasefire deal.

In a statement to the press on Tuesday, the families urged an immediate ceasefire and return to the negotiations to prevent a similar fate for other hostages.

“Unfortunately, it was too late for us,” said Ayelet Svatitzky, sister of Nadav Popplewell whose body was recovered from Gaza by the Israeli military. “But for other hostages, it’s not too late. Their lives can still be saved.”

Carmit Palty-Katzir, sister of deceased hostage Elad Katzir, said the families of hostages who died in captivity have “paid the heaviest price of all” and are now “raising a red flag” to warn against the resumption of fighting. She said her brother could have been returned through a deal, and unless the government negotiates a deal to bring back the rest of the hostages, “the blood of the next hostage will be on your hands.”

The bodies of 41 hostages were retrieved throughout the war by Israeli forces, and the bodies of eight more hostages were released by Hamas in the recent ceasefire.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief told the Security Council that all of the “modest gains” made during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire have been destroyed after Israel launched surprise airstrikes.

“Overnight, our worst fears materialized after strikes resumed across the entire Gaza Strip,” Tom Fletcher said in a briefing to the U.N.’s highest body. He added that the international community “must not and cannot” go back to pre-ceasefire conditions.

The monthlong ceasefire brought some food, shelter and medical relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to what remained of their homes.

The Lebanese militant group says Israel is attacking Gaza with the Trump administration’s backing because neither country respects the agreements they make.

Hezbollah’s statement urged the international community to move quickly “to stop this crime.”

The Lebanese group says Israel couldn’t break the will of the Palestinian “resistance” during 15 months of war, and that the Palestinian people won’t be displaced from their land by the fresh wave of strikes.

A fragile ceasefire last year has halted Hezbollah’s 14-month war with Israel in support of the Palestinians.

The leaders of Egypt and Kuwait say Israel’s attacks on Gaza are a “gross violation of international law and the ceasefire deal.”

The statement from the Egyptian presidency said Israel was resuming the war as part of “premeditated efforts” to make Gaza unlivable and transfer the Palestinians out of their territories.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah spoke by phone Tuesday and warned that the Israeli attacks “could broaden the conflict and undermine prospects of peace and stability in the region.”

They called for the international community to “bear its responsibility and push for an immediate ceasefire.”

Paris is urging both Israel and the Palestinians to respect the ceasefire and “condemned” Israel’s airstrikes for causing “numerous civilian casualties” across Gaza.

The French Foreign Ministry statement calls “for an immediate halt to hostilities, which are compromising efforts to free hostages and threatening the lives of Gaza’s civilian population.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 263 of the more than 400 people confirmed dead so far Tuesday were women or children.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has lashed out at Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government, accusing them of “deliberately foiling” ceasefire efforts.

The militant group said in a statement that Tuesday’s wave of deadly strikes won’t lead to a release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

“We affirm that what Netanyahu and his barbaric army were unable to achieve over fifteen months of crimes and bloodshed, they will be unable to achieve again,” it said.

Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says Israeli strikes have killed two members of its political bureau, Yasser Harab and Mohamed al-Gamasy, according to a statement.

Saraya al-Quds, the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, also said its spokesman Abu Hamza was killed in a strike on his home in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The group said his wife, sister, brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed as well.

In stories on Instagram shared by Israeli media, several Israelis released from Hamas captivity in the first phase of the recent ceasefire made desperate appeals to the government to prioritize the release of the hostages and resume negotiations.

“Returning to fighting? Did you listen to a word of what we, the returnees released in the last deal, have been saying to you? Do you see us?!” wrote former hostage Omer Wenkert. He added that “the sense of being forsaken is the strongest I have ever felt.”

Romi Gonen, who was among the first hostages freed in the last ceasefire, said she “will never forget the moment in captivity when I heard the booms after the (first) deal collapsed and realized I would not be freed anytime soon.” She wrote, “I beg you, the people of Israel, we must continue to fight for them. And the government of Israel – get them out! This is the most urgent thing.”

Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the records department in Gaza’s Health Ministry, said at least 263 of the 404 people confirmed dead so far Tuesday were women or children under 18. He described it as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023.

The war in Gaza has now killed nearly 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.

A statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry called for an immediate ceasefire and for the protection of civilians.

Before the outbreak of the war in October 2023, Saudi Arabia appeared to be close to forging diplomatic relations with Israel in a potentially historic U.S.-brokered agreement. The war put that process on hold. Saudi Arabia says it will not normalize relations with Israel without a halt to the fighting and a path toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Qatar has strongly condemned Israel’s resumption of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Arab country has served as a key mediator with Hamas and helped broker the ceasefire that took hold in January.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned “the resumption of the Israeli occupation’s aggression against the Gaza Strip,” saying it threatens regional stability.

Egypt, which also played a key role in brokering the ceasefire, has also condemned the wave of heavy strikes Israel launched early Tuesday.

Israeli far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir’s party says it is returning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

His party had left the coalition after Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in January. Ben-Gvir’s return comes after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes. It strengthens Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry denounced Israel’s airstrikes across Gaza as a new phase in “genocide.”

Turkey called on the international community to take a “decisive stance” against Israel to ensure a permanent ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“The aggression displayed by the Israeli government threatens the future of the region,” the statement read. “It is unacceptable that Israel is causing a new spiral of violence.”

The Gaza Health Ministry has revised its death toll from Israeli strikes on Tuesday, saying a total of 404 people were killed. It had earlier reported 413 dead.

It also revised the number of wounded to 562 from 660. It did not provide an explanation.

Medics say the situation inside Gaza hospitals has been chaotic since the strikes began hours before dawn, and that many people are still buried under the rubble.

A doctor working at a Gaza hospital said she had witnessed “a level of horror” that was hard to articulate after Israel’s surprise bombardment of the territory.

Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians based at Nasser Hospital, said the pediatric intensive care unit was full. She said she had personally treated at least five patients who died in the emergency room.

“The ER was just chaos, patients everywhere, on the floor,” she said. “There were probably three men, and the rest were all children, women, elderly, everybody caught in their sleep, still wrapped in blankets. Terrifying.”

The death toll from a wave of Israeli strikes in Gaza Tuesday has reached 413, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

The ministry says at least 660 people have been wounded in the strikes.

Israel launched a new offensive on Gaza Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire between it and the militant group Hamas and threatening to fully ignite the war in Gaza.

Palestinians at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City say they were shaken violently from their sleep early Tuesday when Israeli jets struck. Hospital officials said more than two dozen people were killed.

“People are sleeping peacefully, they set the alarm to wake up for suhoor, and they wake up to death,” said Fedaa Heriz, a displaced woman, referring to the early morning meal during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the school strike, which was part of a renewed offensive in Gaza.

“I heard screaming, my mother and sister screaming, calling for help. I came and entered the room and found the children under the rubble, under the stones,” said Majd Naser, a displaced Palestinian.

The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said at least four senior officials, including two top police officers, in the Hamas administration have been killed in Israeli strikes.

They include Issam al-Daalis, head of the government administrative committee, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Abu Watfa, undersecretary of the Interior Ministry, Maj. Gen. Bahgat Abu Sultan, director of the domestic security agency and Ahmed al-Hetta, undersecretary of the Justice Ministry.

Egypt, a key mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, lashed out at Israel, calling its new offensive on Gaza a “flagrant violation of the ceasefire deal.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it rejects “all Israeli attacks which aim to … make ongoing efforts to de-escalate and regain stability fail.”

It called for the international community to “to immediately intervene to stop the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

It also urged the parties to “exercise restraint” and give mediators a space to “complete their efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire.”

The U.N. human rights chief says he’s “horrified” by Israel airstrikes in Gaza overnight that have killed hundreds, according to health authorities in the territory.

Volker Türk says the last 18 months of fighting between Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, and Israeli forces have shown that “the only way forward is a political settlement” and a “military path” offers no way out of the crisis.

The rights chief reiterated his calls for hostages held by Hamas and people held arbitrarily to be released “immediately and unconditionally.”

“This nightmare must end immediately,” he added in a statement.

The families of hostages held by Hamas are calling on supporters to protest with them outside Israel’s parliament, saying the resumption of fighting in Gaza puts their loved ones at risk.

“With each passing day, the danger to the hostages grows. Military pressure could further endanger their lives,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing the families, said in a statement announcing the protest.

An Israeli official says Netanyahu is to meet with top security officials in the coming half-hour to discuss next steps in the war.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

— By Josef Federman in Jerusalem

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says he is “shocked” by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and has called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be respected.

Guterres, in a statement, called for humanitarian aid to resume for people in Gaza and for the hostages held by Hamas to be released unconditionally.

Freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari says her “heart is broken, crushed and disappointed” by the resumption of fighting in Gaza. In a story on Instagram shared by Israeli media, she said she would keep fighting for the remaining hostages.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli strikes across the territory have killed at least 326 people. The wave of strikes that began early Tuesday is among the deadliest since the start of the 17-month war.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for the ceasefire to be maintained following Israel’s attack on Gaza.

“There’s already been enormous suffering there, which is why we’re calling upon all parties to respect the ceasefire and hostage deal that was put in place,” Albanese told reporters.

“We’ll continue to make representations. Australia will continue to stand up for peace and security in the region,” he added.

An Israeli airstrike flattened a prison run by the Hamas-led government in Gaza Strip, killing dozens of prisoners and policemen, according to hospital records.

The prison was located in the urban Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Associated Press footage showed a collapsed building and people trying to reach bodies buried under the rubble.

The bodies of more than three dozen prisoners and guards were taken to the nearby Shifa hospital.

The Hamas-run government operates a police force that numbered in the tens of thousands before the war and quickly returned to the streets after a ceasefire took hold in January.

The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate eastern Gaza and move toward the center of the territory after Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes across the territory.

The orders issued Tuesday indicate Israel could launch renewed ground operations.

The Hamas-run Education Ministry in the Gaza Strip says classes have been suspended in dozens of schools that had recently reopened.

The decision came after Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Gaza early Tuesday, shattering a nearly two-month ceasefire.

Schools shut down across Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war, and most were converted to shelters for displaced people.

The ministry said it had resumed classes in around 70 schools in recent weeks.

A United Nations staffer in the Gaza Strip described a “very tough night” as Israel resumed heavy strikes across the territory after a nearly two-month ceasefire.

Rosalia Bollen, a communications specialist with the U.N. children’s agency, said she woke up around 2 a.m. on Tuesday to “very loud explosions.”

She said the UNICEF bass near the southern city of Rafah “was shaking very heavily.” When the strikes subsided, she heard “people yelling, people screaming and ambulances.”

“The bombardments have continued throughout the night,” though at a lower intensity than the initial barrage, she said. “The whole night, there’s been just the constant buzzing of drones and planes flying over.”

She said the strikes hit tents and structures housing displaced families. “We’re seeing, as of this morning, at least several dozen children killed,” she said.

The main group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza has slammed the decision to return to fighting, saying the move shows the government “chose to give up on the hostages.”

The Hostages Families Forum said “military pressure endangers hostages.” It asked the government in a post on X why it “backed out of the agreement” with Hamas that set out a release of all the living hostages in exchange for an end to the war.

“We are shocked, angry, and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the group said.

A key governing partner of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the return to fighting in Gaza.

Bezalel Smotrich had threatened to leave the government if fighting did not resume, which would imperil Netanyahu’s rule. Critics said those political considerations were influencing Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making.

“We remained in the government for this moment despite our opposition to the (ceasefire) deal, and we are more determined than ever to complete the task and destroy Hamas,” Smotrich posted on X.

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 235 people, according to local hospitals.

The toll from the strikes overnight and into Tuesday is based on records from seven hospitals and does not include bodies brought to other, smaller health centers.

Rescuers are still searching for dead and wounded.

North Korea has criticized the United States over its new campaign of airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The state-run KCNA news agency on Tuesday quoted Ma Tong Hui, North Korea’s ambassador to Egypt and concurrently to Yemen, as describing the attacks as a “wanton violation of all international laws including the U.N. Charter and it is an open encroachment upon the sovereignty of other nation that can never be justified.”

He also criticized “U.S. hooliganism.”

Trump during his first term held summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but the diplomacy collapsed over disagreements on US sanctions.

A senior Hamas official says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch widespread strikes on the Gaza Strip amounts to a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages held there.

In a statement early Tuesday, Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, accused Netanyahu of resuming the war to try and save his far-right governing coalition.

“Netanyahu’s decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the (Israeli) occupation’s captives and a death sentence against them,” he said.

He said Israel didn’t respect its commitments in the ceasefire deal reached in January and urged mediators to “reveal facts” on which side broke the agreement.

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the militant group “could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.”

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been leading mediation efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, had earlier warned that Hamas must release living hostages immediately “or pay a severe price.”

Israeli officials said the latest operation was open-ended and was expected to expand.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the “Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight.”

“As President Trump has made it clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran — all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America — will see a price to pay: All hell will break lose,” Leavitt continued, speaking to Fox News on Monday evening.

Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT.- Palestinians hold the hands of their relative who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Karem Hanna)

Palestinians inspect the damage at Al-Tabi'in School in central Gaza Strip following an Israeli airstrike, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A woman carries the body of a child to Al-Ahli hospital following overnight Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli army airstrikes as they are brought to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An injured man is take to the Al-Ahli hospital following Israeli army overnight airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi).

Einav Zangauker, mother of Matan, who is held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, tries to pass a barbed wire to approach the Gaza border, calling for his release and expressing concerns that the resumption of fighting in Gaza puts him at risk, in southern Israel, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

An Israeli tank maneuvers on the border with northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli army airstrikes as they are brought to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man holds the body of his 11 month-old nephew Mohammad Shaban, killed in an Israeli army airstrikes at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A boy reacts as he looks at the body of a person killed during overnight Israeli army airstrikes across the Gaza Strip in the yard of the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A woman mourns as she identifies a body in the Al-Ahli hospital following overnight Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israels calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and saying the resumption of fighting in Gaza puts their loved ones at risk, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Israeli tanks maneuver on the border with northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A man mourns over the body of a child, lying among other victims at the hospital morgue, following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)

A man carries a covered body following overnight Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT.- A man carries the body of a child to the Al-Ahli hospital following multiple overnight Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli army airstrikes are brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli army airstrikes is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army airstrikes are brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli army airstrikes is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A dead person killed during an Israeli army strike is taken into the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday March 18, 2025.(AP Photo/ Mohammad Jahjouh)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk surrounded by the rubble of destroyed homes and building in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis said in a letter published Tuesday that his lengthy illness has helped make “more lucid” to him the absurdity of war, as his top deputy shot down any suggestion of resignation and Buckingham Palace announced plans for an upcoming audience with Britain's King Charles III.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera published a letter to the editor from Francis, signed and dated March 14 from Rome's Gemelli hospital where the 88-year-old pontiff has been treated since Feb. 14 for a complex lung infection and double pneumonia.

In it, Francis renewed his call for diplomacy and international organizations to find a “new vitality and credibility.” And he said that his own illness had also helped make some things clearer to him, including the “absurdity of war.”

“Human fragility has the power to make us more lucid about what endures and what passes, what brings life and what kills,” he wrote.

Responding to a letter from the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Luciano Fontana, Francis also urged him and all those in the media to “feel the full importance of words.”

“They are never just words: they are facts that shape human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it for other ends,” he wrote. “We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth.”

The letter was published as Francis registered slight improvements in his treatment and as the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, shot down any suggestion the pope might resign.

“Absolutely no,” Parolin told journalists on Monday when asked if he and the pope had discussed a resignation. Parolin has visited Francis twice during his hospitalization, most recently on March 2, and said he found Francis better than during his first Feb. 25 visit.

Also on Tuesday, Francis received a standing ovation from the Italian Senate, after Premier Giorgia Meloni sent her greetings and said “not just this chamber, but all of the Italian people″ wish the pope a full recovery “as soon as possible.”

Meloni, who was the first outsider to visit the pope after he was hospitalized, said that “even in a trying moment, his strength and guidance have been felt.”

Francis for the second day spent some time off high flows of oxygen and used just ordinary supplemental oxygen delivered by a nasal tube, the Holy See press office said Tuesday. In addition, for the first time in several weeks he didn't use the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask at night at all, to force his lungs to work more.

While those amount to “slight improvements,” the Vatican isn’t yet providing any timetable on when he might be released. That said, Buckingham Palace announced Monday that King Charles III was scheduled to meet with Francis on April 8 at the Vatican, assuming he is back and well enough.

Such state visits are always closely organized with Parolin's office. However, the Vatican press office on Tuesday declined to confirm the visit, noting that the Holy See only confirms papal audiences shortly before they happen.

The developments came as the Vatican released some details on the first photograph of Francis released since his hospitalization. The image, taken Sunday from behind, showed Francis sitting in his wheelchair in his private chapel in prayer without any sign of nasal tubes.

The photo, showing Francis wearing a Lenten purple stole, followed an audio message the pope recorded March 6 in which he thanked people for their prayers, his voice soft and labored.

Together, they suggested Francis is very much controlling how the public follows his illness to prevent it from turning into a spectacle. While many in the Vatican have held up St. John Paul II’s long and public battle with Parkinson’s disease and other ailments as a humble sign of his willingness to show his frailties, others criticized it as excessive and glorifying sickness.

The image certainly reassured some well-wishers who came to Gemelli to pray for Francis, who is recovering in the 10th-floor papal suite reserved for popes.

“After a month of hospitalization, finally a photo that can assure us that his health conditions are better,” said the Rev. Enrico Antonio, a priest from Pescara.

But Benedetta Flagiello of Naples, who was visiting her sister at Gemelli, wondered if the photo was even real.

“Because if the pope can sit for a moment without a mask, without anything, why didn’t he look out the window on the 10th floor to be seen by everyone?” she asked. “If you remember our old pope (John Paul II), he couldn’t speak up, but he showed up.”

Associated Press writers Paolo Santalucia and Silvia Stellacci contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Faithful pray in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, during a vigil rosary for the recovery of Pope Francis, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Faithful pray in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, during a vigil rosary for the recovery of Pope Francis, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE - Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

Cardinal Dominique Mamberti prays in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, during a vigil rosary for the recovery of Pope Francis, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

This picture released by the Vatican Press Office shows Pope Francis concelebrating a mass inside his private chapel att the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Sunday, March 16, 2025. (Vatican Press Office, Via AP )