Here’s how things stand on Sunday, March 17, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- At least 92 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Wafa news agency. Shelling on Sunday morning targeted areas in the south and northeast of Khan Younis as well as in the north of Rafah city.
- Late Saturday evening attacks in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza killed at least 12 people and wounded many more, including children, according to videos and witnesses.
- Several aid trucks arrived safely in Jabalia and Gaza City, marking the first convoys to travel from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip without incident in four months. Flour is now being distributed from at least six trucks secured at camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
- A second aid ship will soon leave Cyprus for Gaza with tonnes of aid to join the Open Arms vessel which has started unloading 200 tonnes of aid cargo in Gaza.
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israeli troops would pursue a planned ground offensive in southern Gaza’s Rafah that has spurred fears of mass civilian casualties.
- Ceasefire talks could resume in Qatar as early as Sunday, with an Israeli delegation led by Mossad’s spy chief expected in Doha to discuss Hamas’s proposal for a three-stage plan to end the war.
- Amnesty International called on US President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire and stop arms sales to Israel, saying that US-made munitions have killed many of the more than 30,000 fatalities in Gaza.
- Human Rights Watch called on the the international community to impose sanctions on Israel for its failure to comply with the International Court of Justice’s order to take provisional measures in Gaza to prevent genocide of the Palestinian people.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces detained at least 25 Palestinians from the West Bank in overnight and early Sunday raids. A Gazan female awaiting cancer treatment, a child, and former prisoners were among those arrested in Hebron, Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem, Wafa reports.
- An Israeli rights group, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) has called on the international community to sanction Israel over its abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees.
