Here’s how things stand on Sunday, February 25, 2024:
No let-up in Israeli attack
- A two-month-old baby, named Mahmoud Fattouh, died of malnutrition in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reported.
- No let-up in Israeli bombardment in central and southern Gaza as at least eight Palestinians were killed in an attack near a busy market in Rafah.
- An Israeli attack targeting a home caused a large fire in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.
- Hussam Abu Safiya, head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the facility has seen a steep rise in malnutrition cases among children, especially newborns.
- Moaz al-Majida, a paediatrician in Gaza, said nursing mothers are unable to lactate amid a food crisis, affecting the health of their babies.
- The Israeli army said one of its soldiers was killed in Gaza and three others were seriously injured.
- Norway’s embassy in Palestine shared a social media post mourning the deaths of two Palestinian human rights lawyers, Nour Naser Abu al-Nour and Dana Yaghi, in Gaza.
- The latest situation report from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said “increased air strikes in Rafah have heightened fears for the already overstretched humanitarian operations” in the southern Gaza city.
Occupied West Bank, Israel updates
- Israeli forces beat eight Palestinians during a raid on Hebron in the occupied West Bank as they were interrogated, Wafa reported.
- Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid strongly condemned the police for using force against protesters demonstrating against President Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv.
Diplomacy
- Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha in the coming days to continue talks on a captive release and truce deal, reports Israeli media outlet Ynet.
- In an interview with Israel’s N12 News, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israeli delegates returning from talks with Qatari, Egyptian and US officials in Paris had scheduled a briefing for the war cabinet, suggesting that “they feel they did not come back empty-handed”.
- The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described Israeli plans to build 3,300 new housing units in the occupied West Bank as “controversial and dangerous”.
Regional tensions
- US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Yemen’s Houthi rebels will continue to “bear the consequences” if they do not cease their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
- The US Central Command said US and UK forces, with support from Western allies, hit 18 Houthi targets in Yemen.
- The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), an information conduit between the military and commercial shipping, received a report of an explosion near a vessel 70 nautical miles (about 130km) east of Djibouti.
