Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, March 27, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- Israel is ramping up its military attacks, in particular in Rafah. “Over the past couple of hours, we have been recording multiple air strikes that targeted three residential houses,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday.
- Attacks continued elsewhere in Gaza as well, including Jabalia refugee camp.
- “Not only have there been intense attacks across Rafah city, but there is also the constant buzzing sound of drones, taking a mental toll on people and making it hard to sleep,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said.
- Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces are continuing their siege of al-Shifa Hospital where they have claimed to have killed a number of fighters.
- At least 32,414 Palestinians have been killed and 74,787 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- On Tuesday, US Defence Secretary Austin told Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant that the civilian death toll in Gaza was “far too high” and the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Palestinian civilians was “far too low”.
- Meanwhile Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said on Tuesday that Israel’s actions constitute “prima facie evidence of an intention to systematically destroy the Palestinians as a group”.
- Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets in the north of Israel on Tuesday, hitting several industrial buildings following an earlier Israeli strike that hit an emergency response centre in Lebanon’s al-Habbariyeh area.
- Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has accused US President Joe Biden of “tacitly supporting Israel’s enemies”, including Hamas’s leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Tlaib is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress.
- A Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying 20 tonnes of aid, including food, for the people of Gaza, arrived in the Egyptian city of El Arish on Tuesday, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Local media reported on Wednesday that two Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drone strike in the Jenin refugee camp. Nine people were also wounded after the strike.
- The Israeli military also fatally shot a 19-year-old during a military incursion into the city. Four more youths were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin on Tuesday.
