Here’s how things stand on Thursday, March 28, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- On Thursday morning, Al Jazeera Arabic reported that Israeli forces launched air attacks on northern Gaza, including Gaza City and the Shati and Jabalia refugee camps.
- Separately, footage obtained by Al Jazeera on Thursday shows Israeli soldiers shooting dead two Palestinian men who were walking along the coast towards northern Gaza. The two – who had white pieces of cloth raised – were then buried by an Israeli bulldozer.
- Almost 160 Palestinians were killed and 195 injured by Israeli attacks between Monday and Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Wednesday, as heavy fighting continues in northern Gaza City.
- Two-thirds of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “non-functional” while those that remain open are either “minimally” or “partially” functional, according to OCHA.
- The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported on Wednesday that the healthcare system in northern Gaza “has been largely destroyed” and is on the “brink of collapse” in the south.
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office asked the White House on Wednesday to reschedule a high-level meeting on military plans for Gaza’s southern city of Rafah that he had abruptly cancelled, in an apparent bid to ease tensions between the two allies.
- Separately, more than 130 parliamentarians in the United Kingdom urged the government on Wednesday to immediately suspend export licences for arms transfers to Israel.
- In the south of Lebanon, at least nine people were killed in two separate strikes on Wednesday as fighting continues to escalate between Israel and Hezbollah.
- In Gaza, Spanish military planes airdropped 26 tonnes of humanitarian aid on Wednesday and Madrid called on Israel to open land border crossings to prevent a famine, the foreign ministry said.
- Large crowds have rallied in cities across Morocco to denounce Israel’s assault and called for an immediate ceasefire, according to videos published online on Wednesday.
- In Jordan, hundreds of people protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza gathered near the Israeli embassy in Amman for a fourth day running on Wednesday night.
- UN expert Francesca Albanese who published a report accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza says she has received threats throughout her mandate.
- A spokesman for the US State Department also accused her of anti-Semitism and dismissed her findings.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- The Israeli military has carried out a series of arrests in locations across the occupied West Bank in recent hours, the Wafa news agency reported.
- According to the report, it arrested two brothers following a raid on the town of Abu Dis, east of occupied East Jerusalem. A man has also been arrested in the town of ash-Shuyukh in Hebron governorate, while another was arrested when Israeli forces stormed the village of Sarta, west of Salfit.
