Summary of the day so far
It is 5.20pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 6.50pm in Tehran. Here is a recap of the latest developments from today:
European Commission president Usrula von der Leyen is due to travel to Cyprus later this week as the bloc is working towards establishing a possible humanitarian corridor in support of the population in Gaza through the Mediterranean island, her spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough on Tuesday, Egyptian officials said. According to AP, two Egyptian officials said Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days. One of the officials said that mediators would meet on Wednesday with the Hamas delegation, which had not left Cairo.
US President Joe Biden called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Envoys from Hamas and the US have been meeting Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo for negotiations over a six-week truce.
It came as Republican presidential frontrunner and former US president Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel’s war in Gaza on Tuesday, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting. When asked during an interview on Fox News if he was “in Israel’s camp.” he responded “Yes”.
A 14-truck food convoy – the first by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) since it paused deliveries to northern Gaza on 20 February – was turned back by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. According to the WFP, it then turned to airdrops: “Earlier today, with the help of the Royal Jordanian air force, WFP food supplies for 20,000 people (6 tons) were dropped in northern Gaza.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that hunger and malnutrition were on the rise among children, breastfeeding women, and pregnant women in Gaza. It added: “The need for access to humanitarian aid is dire.”
International development charity ActionAid has warned that the aid system in Gaza is “at the brink of total collapse” and reported that a “sharp increase in malnutrition” in Gaza had led to an increase in deaths among children and cases of stillborn babies. In a statement from the charity, Dr Mohammed Salha, director of al-Awda hospital, ActionAid’s partner in northern Gaza, said: “There are many operations that have been performed, like caesarean sections to remove foetuses, [which] died due to malnutrition among women.”
UN experts condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a “massacre”. In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,” adding: “Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, posted a video to social media about malnutrition affecting the youngest children in Gaza, alongside the message “children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine”. He called for more aid for the beseiged Gaza Strip and a ceasefire.
86 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Wednesday. According to the statement, at least 30,717 Palestinians have been killed and 72,156 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The US called on Iran on Wednesday to dilute all of the uranium it has enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the weapons-grade level of roughly 90%, in a statement denouncing many of Tehran’s recent nuclear moves. The news agency, Reuters said it had seen a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
David Cameron is to tell the Israeli cabinet minister Benny Gantz that UK patience is wearing thin at the lack of humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza at a meeting in London on Wednesday. The UK foreign secretary said that Israel, as the occupying power, had a duty under international humanitarian law to supply aid.
An internal UN report describes widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, including beatings, dog attacks, the prolonged use of stress positions and sexual assault. The report was compiled by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).
23 Palestinians were detained by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Canada will restore funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), a government official has told the Associated Press. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported that Canada will restore funding and that international development minister, Ahmed Hussen would announce the decision on Wednesday, but the unnamed government official told the AP that the announcement had been delayed.
Israel has again insisted that the failure to get humanitarian aid into Gaza is being caused by issues with supply, rather than any delays caused by Israeli inspections, reported Al Jazeera. Speaking on Israel’s I24NEWS, Shimon Freedman, a spokesperson for the Israeli COGAT unit, said “Israel is inspecting more aid than the international community can distribute. The real issue is for the organisations to increase their capacity so we can see more humanitarian aid making its way to the people of Gaza.”
One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February, the first recorded instances of non-combatants being killed during the Anglo-American bombing campaign against the Houthis that began on 12 January.
The Houthis mistakenly sank a ship, the Rubymar, in the Red Sea it believed to be British owned when its only link to the UK was an insurance cover that is now being disputed by the insurers. The cargo ship sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertiliser on board. It had been taking on water since a Houthi missile strike on 18 February damaged its hull.
Maritime security firm Ambrey on Wednesday reported an “explosion” near a Barbados-flagged, US-owned bulk carrier transitting south-west of the Yemeni port city of Aden. Ambrey cautioned other ships to steer clear of the bulker which matches the “targeting profile” of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received a report of an incident 54 nautical miles south-west of Aden, in Yemen, according to a post on its X account. The UKMTO said authorities are investigating.
Updated
One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February
One civilian was killed and ten wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Yemen in February, the first recorded instances of non-combatants being killed during the Anglo-American bombing campaign against the Houthis that began on 12 January.
According to figures compiled by the Yemen Data Project, a conflict monitoring group, a civilian was killed and seven injured in a single strike on a telecommunications site in Maqbanah district of Taiz on 24 February.
A further 2 civilians were recorded injured in a strike on a pesticide factory in Sana’a, also on 24 February, while another injured civilian recorded on 2 February in a strike on a farm in the Abs district of Hajja. The descriptions appear to match strikes conducted by the US, rather than the UK.
In total the NGO counted 79 US and UK strikes compared with 33 in January. The maximum number of individual munitions used similarly rose from 69 in January to 186 a month later.
Updated
The Houthis mistakenly sank a ship, the Rubymar, in the Red Sea it believed to be British owned when its only link to the UK was an insurance cover that is now being disputed by the insurers. The ship is predicted to cause severe environmental damage.
Both the British government and Centcom acknowledged that the Rubymar had limited British links but it emerged that the owner of the ship’s reported address – a private apartment inside a residential block of flats in Southampton recorded in the Equasis public database – has not been owned by Rubymar’s owner, a Lebanese businessman, Hassan Chahadah.
According to a report in Lloyd’s List, the operator of the vessel is a Lebanese registered company, incorporated in the Marshall Islands and ultimately owned by Lebanese national Captain Wael Chahadah. The crew, who were forced to abandon ship after the missiles struck and the bulker started taking on water, were Egyptian, Syrian and Filipino. The flag authorities investigating the incident are in Belize City.
There is now a dispute between the ship’s owners and its insurers whether the insurance had been withdrawn due to the risks of sailing in the Red Sea, leaving it unclear how money is to be raised to pay for the expected environmental damage.
Thomas Miller Specialty, a commercial Managing General Agency, had advised on 13 February their reinsurers were no longer able to support war risks exposures within the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and southern Red Sea. The ship was sunk after that date, but it is unclear precisely when the notice withdrawing insurance came into effect.
Rubymar was carrying 21,000 tons of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertiliser from the United Arab Emirates to Bulgaria and had been chartered by Saudi Arabian commodities and mining company Ma’aden.
The ship finally sank on 2 March. The owners had been trying for a week to hire salvors in a bid to prevent the ship from causing further environmental damage, but the owners could not find a salvage company that would operate without an explicit written agreement that they would be protected by a naval protection force. No agreement was reached before the ship finally sank.
The ship lies approximately 30km west of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Mokha, opening questions as to responsibility for the required clear up.
The dispute came after the Houthi authorities said any ship passing the Yemen coast in the Red Sea will now need explicit Houthi permission to travel from its Maritime Affairs Authority.
In a sign of a fresh Houthi strike an explosion was heard in the vicinity of a Barbados-flagged, US-owned cargo ship off the port of Aden in southern Yemen, the British security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday.
The ship was hit approximately 57 nautical miles south-west of Aden. It reportedly was hailed by an entity declaring itself to be the “Yemeni Navy” and ordered to alter course.
Vessels in the vicinity reported a loud bang and a large plume of smoke, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said.
The British embassy said the Houthis had now tried to hit 60 ships covering 40 countries.
Updated
Canada will restore funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), a government official has told the Associated Press (AP), weeks after the agency lost hundreds of millions of dollars in support following Israeli allegations against some of its staffers in Gaza.
According to the AP, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported that Canada will restore funding and that international development minister, Ahmed Hussen would announce the decision on Wednesday. But the government official told the AP the announcement had been delayed, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to comment on the matter.
Canada’s foreign minister is in the Middle East and plans to visit Israel, added the report.
'Sharp increase in malnutrition' in Gaza has led to an increase in deaths among children and cases of stillborn babies, says charity
International development charity ActionAid has warned that the aid system in Gaza is “at the brink of total collapse”.
In a statement from the charity, Dr Mohammed Salha, director of al-Awda hospital, ActionAid’s partner in northern Gaza, said “a sharp increase in malnutrition” had led to an increase in deaths among children and cases of stillborn babies:
Many cases were recorded in government hospitals of children who died due to malnutrition.
We are a hospital specialised in women’s services and childbirth. There are many operations that have been performed, like caesarean sections to remove foetuses, [which] died due to malnutrition among women.
More than 95% of women [who] come to the hospital and undergo the necessary medical examinations [are suffering] from anemia.”
Al-Awda hospital – the only hospital with maternity services in northern Gaza – was supplied two days ago with fuel by the WHO, but it is only enough to last for two weeks, said ActionAid. It also added that the hospital did not receive a supply of medicines.
ActionAid warns that the aid system in Gaza is at the brink of total collapse as women give birth to stillborn babies and the risk of famine looms large.
— ActionAid UK (@ActionAidUK) March 6, 2024
Read our latest press release:https://t.co/dq4hWwtjXk
Since aid convoys started entering Gaza at the end of October, about 70% of all humanitarian assistance has crossed the border with Egypt into Rafah, says ActionAid. “It is also where many aid agencies are headquartered meaning that any ground offensive will spell complete catastrophe for over two million people in Gaza,” it warned.
In recent days, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported that 15 children had died of malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza.
Buthaina Sobeh, director of Wefaq, ActionAid Palestine’s partner in Gaza, said:
All the aid that crosses into the Gaza Strip from the Rafah crossing in the south through the Egyptian crossing does not meet [people’s] needs. There are groups that suffer [a lot of] difficultly, such as newly born children, as there are no diapers or milk, the price of a box of diapers has become 200 shekels [£43.88].
Most families here depend on tinned food, and this has caused many problems. We need hot meals, such as vegetable [dishes], to be provided to families to meet their basic needs. Also, medication is not available for most patients, especially cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and dialysis patients.The needs of women, children and people in general are [very high]. The capabilities that reach the Gaza Strip are very small and hardly meet these increasing needs.”
“With the IPC potentially announcing next week that pockets of Gaza are facing famine, an already overwhelmed aid system will be unable to respond while many more continue to face extreme hunger,” said Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine.
Concluding the statement, ActionAid called for Israel to “open reliable and safe entry points for aid to flow at scale into Gaza, with no denials, delays or barriers” and for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire”.
“If people in Gaza don’t die from the bombs, they will likely die from starvation,” said Jafari. “This is not a reality anyone should face; we are urging the international community to act now to end this senseless cycle of violence and suffering.”
Updated
US urges Iran to dilute all its near-weapons-grade uranium - Reuters report
The US called on Iran on Wednesday to dilute all of the uranium it has enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the weapons-grade level of roughly 90%, in a statement denouncing many of Tehran’s recent nuclear moves, reports Reuters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report to member states last week that Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% had fallen slightly in the past quarter as it had diluted, or “downblended”, more of its most highly enriched material than it had produced.
Iran still has enough of that material, if enriched further, to fuel two nuclear weapons by a theoretical IAEA definition, and enough for more bombs at lower enrichment levels, the report seen by Reuters showed.
“Iran should downblend all, not just some, of its 60% stockpile, and stop all production of uranium enriched to 60% entirely,” the US said in a statement on Iran to a quarterly meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors.
It is not clear why Iran downblended the material. It denies seeking nuclear weapons and says it has the right to enrich to high levels for civil purposes. Western powers say there is no credible civil justification for enriching to such high levels.
“We continue to have serious concerns related to the stockpile of highly enriched uranium that Iran continues to maintain,” the US statement said.
“No other country today is producing uranium enriched to 60% for the purpose Iran claims and Iran’s actions are counter to the behavior of all other non-nuclear weapons states party to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty),” it added.
The US also condemned various moves by Iran, many of which the IAEA has also criticised, such as barring some of the IAEA’s most experienced and expert inspectors last year.
Updated
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, has posted a video to social media about malnutrition affecting the youngest children in Gaza, alongside the message “Children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine”. He called for more aid for the beseiged Gaza Strip and a ceasefire.
Children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 6, 2024
Allow more aid for #Gaza.
Ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/O2EfbDit8p
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that 23 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today.
Israel has again insisted that the failure to get humanitarian aid into Gaza is being caused by issues with supply, rather than any delays caused by Israeli inspections.
Al Jazeera reports that speaking on Israel’s I24NEWS, Shimon Freedman, a spokesperson for the Israeli COGAT unit, said “Israel is inspecting more aid than the international community can distribute. The real issue is for the organisations to increase their capacity so we can see more humanitarian aid making its way to the people of Gaza.”
The UN’s refugee agency for Palestine is among international aid groups to have sharply disagreed with the assessment. The number of aid trucks being allowed to enter Gaza in February dropped from the level that had been entering in January, and the border crossing at Kerem Shalom has been the scene of repeated demonstrations by Israelis seeking to prevent any aid entering the Gaza Strip until Hamas releases the hostages it abducted on 7 October.
EU working on creating maritime humanitarian corridor to support people in Gaza
European Commission president Usrula von der Leyen is due to travel to Cyprus later this week as the bloc is working towards establishing a possible humanitarian corridor in support of the population in Gaza through the Mediterranean island, her spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“Our efforts are focused on making sure that we can provide aid to Palestinians,” the spokesperson said during a briefing with journalists, reports Reuters. The spokesperson added: “We all hope that this opening [of the corridor] will take place very soon.”
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Explosion reported near vessel off Yemen, says maritime security firm
Maritime security firm Ambrey on Wednesday reported an “explosion” near a Barbados-flagged, US-owned bulk carrier transitting south-west of the Yemeni port city of Aden, reports AFP.
“A nearby vessel reported an explosion in the proximity of the Barbados-flagged, publicly US-owned, bulk carrier,” Ambrey said, cautioning other ships to steer clear of the bulker which matches the “targeting profile” of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The Houthis have vowed to strike Israeli, British and US ships as well as vessels heading to Israeli ports, disrupting traffic through the vital trade route off Yemen’s shores.
Before the latest reported attack, Ambrey said the bulk carrier was “hailed by an entity declaring itself to be the ‘Yemeni Navy’,” a title adopted by the Houthi rebels.
As mentioned on the live blog earlier, British maritime security agency UKMTO also reported an “attack” south-west of Aden, without elaborating.
The attacks have caused several major shipping firms to suspend passage through the Red Sea, which usually carries about 12% of global trade.
At least “15 commercial ships have been impacted” since November, including four US ships, US department of defence spokesperson Pete Nguyen said on Friday, reports AFP.
The US and UK have since January launched repeated strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the ship attacks.
Updated
My colleague, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan has written a piece on Jerusalem’s Old City as Ramadan nears. You can read the full piece at the link below:
Bab Hutta, a neighbourhood in Jerusalem’s Old City, lies right outside the gates to the most contested religious site in the world – the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sharif.
Normally, the area is one of the most beautiful places in the city for Ramadan celebrations, covered in strings of festive lights and lanterns that take about 30 volunteers several weeks to set up. This year, there are no decorations, and the narrow passageways of the Muslim Quarter are quiet. About half of the usually lively souvenir shops and restaurants are closed; on some streets, there are more Israeli border police officers than civilians.
The holy month of fasting and feasting is expected to begin on 10 March, but with war in Gaza raging, and tensions in annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank at boiling point, there is little for Palestinians to celebrate.
“It is difficult to fast or eat when we think about our people in Gaza, who are starving,” said Bab Hutta resident Zeki al-Basti, 54. “There were no Christmas celebrations, and there will be no Easter celebrations, as long as the war continues … All we can do is pray.”
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has received a report of an incident 54 nautical miles south-west of Aden, in Yemen, according to a post on its X account.
The UKMTO said authorities are investigating. We will post more details as they come in.
UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 046
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) March 6, 2024
ATTACKhttps://t.co/auxAKdReZU#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/2QQ0CG8v9T
Updated
The sinking of a bulk carrier off the coast of Yemen after a Houthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts have warned.
Leaking fuel and the chemical pollutant could harm marine life, including coral reefs, and affect coastal communities that rely on fishing for their livelihoods, they said.
The Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated Rubymar sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertiliser on board, according to US Central Command (Centcom).
It had been taking on water since a Houthi missile strike on 18 February damaged its hull, marking the most significant impact on a commercial ship since the rebels started targeting vessels in November.
You can read the full piece here:
WFP say a 14-truck food convoy was turned back by the IDF on Tuesday
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), a 14-truck food convoy – the first by the WFP since it paused deliveries to northern Gaza on 20 February – was turned back by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.
“Although today’s convoy did not make it to the north to provide food to the people who are starving, WFP continues to explore every possible means to do so,” said Carl Skau, WFP’s deputy executive director in a statement issued by the UN agency.
The WFP say that after being turned away the trucks were rerouted and later stopped by a “large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking about 200 tons, from the trucks”. Road routes are the only option to transport the large quantities of food needed to avert famine in northern Gaza, said the humanitarian agency.
With the 14-truck food convoy being turned back, the WFP turned to airdrops, it said: “Earlier today, with the help of the Royal Jordanian air force, WFP food supplies for 20,000 people (6 tons) were dropped in northern Gaza.”
🆕 #Gaza: After a 14-truck convoy was turned away today, WFP food for 20,000 people was dropped into northern Gaza with support of the Jordanian Air Forces.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) March 5, 2024
WFP is determined to do whatever it takes to reach people in need. ⚠️ But to avert famine, we must have access by road.
“Airdrops are a last resort and will not avert famine. We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for half a million people in desperate need,” Skau said.
The WFP said hunger in the north of Gaza had reached “catastrophic levels” and warned that “children are dying of hunger-related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition”. The UN agency called for “more entry points into Gaza, including from the north, and the use of Ashdod port”, as well as a ceasfire.
“A ceasefire in Gaza is urgently needed to enable an operation of this size. With greater safety for humanitarian staff to move food and other supplies regularly throughout the Strip and with routes in from the north, WFP and its partners can prevent famine,” it added.
Updated
Hunger and malnutrition on the rise among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that hunger and malnutrition were on the rise among children, breastfeeding women, and pregnant women in Gaza.
In a post on X, the UN’s health agency, said that the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza was “overwhelmed with patients” and was facing “acute shortages of food, water, fuel, health workers, and medicines”. It added: “The need for access to humanitarian aid is dire.”
Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise among children, breastfeeding women, and pregnant women in #Gaza.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 5, 2024
The only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza is overwhelmed with patients and is facing acute shortages of food, water, fuel, health workers, and medicines. The need for… pic.twitter.com/DIheYhT5u4
According to the WHO, one in six children under the age of two years old in northern Gaza is acutely malnourished.
In a video posted by the UN agency, paeditrician Dr Imad Dardonah said of the situation:
Malnutrition plays a major role in the number of children that come to us, and the number of deaths.
When a child is supposed to eat three meals a day and ends up eating one meal, that’s not enough; your body becomes deficient in carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins, and defecient in fats that are necessary for the body. Then the body goes into a severe dehydration state.
We can’t even deal properly with 50-60% of the cases we receive, because we have nothing to give them. The most we can do for them is give them saline solution or sugar solution.”
The WHO also highlighted the threat to patient care posed by frequent power cuts at hospitals in Gaza.
“My message to the entire world is to save the children, the war must stop immediately, to bring medical aid, and fuel to the hospitals, and to help bring back all the medical staff that had to leave the hospital to the south,” said Dardonah.
Updated
UN experts condemn Israeli ‘massacre’ of Palestinians collecting flour
UN experts have condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a “massacre”.
In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,” adding: “Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
“Israel must end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians,” said the UN experts, who warned there was mounting evidence of famine in the Gaza Strip.
At least 112 people died and 760 were injured on Thursday when desperate crowds gathered to collect flour.
Witnesses in Gaza and some of the injured said Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, causing panic. Israel said people died in a crush or were run over by aid lorries although it admitted its troops had fired on what it called a “mob”.
“The attack came after Israel has denied humanitarian aid into Gaza City and northern Gaza for more than a month,” said the experts, who described “a pattern of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians seeking aid”.
86 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 86 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 113 were injured in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 30,717 Palestinians have been killed and 72,156 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Children are reported to be starving in Gaza as insufficient aid supplies crawl into the territory. Meanwhile, as Ramadan approaches, peace talks are faltering. Patrick Wintour reports in the latest Today in Focus episode by the Guardian.
You can listen to the report here:
Updated
UK patience with Israel wearing thin over Gaza aid, Cameron to tell Gantz
David Cameron is to tell the Israeli cabinet minister Benny Gantz that UK patience is wearing thin at the lack of humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza at a meeting in London on Wednesday.
The foreign secretary said that Israel, as the occupying power, had a duty under international humanitarian law to supply aid.
During a six-hour foreign affairs debate Cameron also set out new plans for a coalition of like-minded states to use frozen Russian assets as a bond that Ukraine could spend in the knowledge that eventually Moscow would be forced to pay reparations.
“We are facing a situation of dreadful suffering in Gaza,” he said. “I spoke some weeks ago about the danger of this tipping into famine, and the danger of illness tipping into disease. And we are now at that point. People are dying of hunger, people are dying of otherwise preventable diseases.
“We’ve had a whole set of things we’ve asked the Israelis to do, but I have to report that the amount of aid they got in in February was about half what they got in January,” he added. “So patience needs to run very thin, and a whole series of warnings need to be given, starting with the meeting I have with minister Gantz when he visits the UK tomorrow.”
You can read the full piece from the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here:
Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough on Tuesday, Egyptian officials said, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The US, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release up to 40 hostages in return for a six-week ceasefire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and an major influx of aid to the isolated territory.
Two Egyptian officials said that the latest round of discussions ended on Tuesday. According to the AP, they said Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days. One of the officials said that mediators would meet on Wednesday with the Hamas delegation, which had not left Cairo.
Hamas has refused to release all of the estimated 100 hostages it holds, and the remains of 30 more, unless Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences.
US officials have said that they are skeptical that Hamas actually wants a deal, because the group has balked at a number of what the US and others believe are legitimate requests, including giving the names of hostages to be released.
“It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage,” US secretary of state, Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
“We have an opportunity for an immediate ceasefire that can bring hostages home, that can dramatically increase the amount of humanitarian aid getting in to Palestinians who so desperately need it, and can set the conditions for an enduring resolution,” Blinken said.
Senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan said Tuesday that his group demands a permanent ceasefire, rather than a six-week pause, and a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces.
“The security and safety of our people will be achieved only by a permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression and the withdrawal from every inch of the Gaza Strip,” Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected Hamas’ demands and repeatedly vowed to continue the war until Hamas is dismantled and all the hostages are returned. Israel did not send a delegation to the latest round of talks.
Israel was still waiting for Hamas to hand over a list of hostages who are alive as well as the hostage-to-prisoner ratio it seeks in any release deal, an Israeli official told the AP. It wasn’t clear if that information was included in the latest proposal.
The Israeli and Egyptian officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media on the negotiations.
When asked whether Hamas has a list of the surviving hostages, Hamdan said that the matter wasn’t relevant to the talks and accused Israel of using it as an excuse to avoid engaging in the negotiations.
Updated
Palestinians ‘beaten and sexually assaulted’ at Israeli detention centres, UN report claims
An internal UN report describes widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, including beatings, dog attacks, the prolonged use of stress positions and sexual assault.
The report was compiled by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) and is largely based on interviews of Palestinian detainees released at the Kerem Shalom crossing point since December, when UNRWA staff were present to provide humanitarian support.
The report, which has been circulated within the UN and seen by the Guardian, says that just over 1,000 detainees have been released since December. But it estimates that more than 4,000 men, women and children have been rounded up in Gaza since the start of the current conflict, triggered by Hamas raids into southern Israel on 7 October which killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
Israel denies the abuse allegations, which it described as Hamas-inspired propaganda. It has named 12 UNRWA staff it claims took part in the 7 October attack, and claims that 450 of the agency’s 13,000 workers in Gaza are members of Hamas or other militant groups.
You can read more from Julian Borger’s full piece here:
Gaza ceasefire talks appear to stall days before Ramadan
Negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan.
Two days of talks between Hamas and international mediators in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, have not yielded any significant breakthroughs, Palestinian officials said, after Israel declined to send a delegation to the latest round of negotiations.
“[Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn’t want to reach an agreement” and “the ball now is in the Americans’ court” to press the Israeli prime minister to come back to the table, Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’s political division in Gaza, told reporters in text messages.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, said the “negotiations are difficult but they are continuing”, citing an unnamed senior official.
You can read the full piece from Bethan McKernan (in Jerusalem) and Julian Borger (in Washington) here:
'We need a ceasefire': deal between Hamas and Israel close, says Joe Biden – video
US President Joe Biden called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Envoys from Hamas and the US have been meeting Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo for negotiations over a six-week truce.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, said the talks would continue for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Biden told reporters:
It’s in the hands of Hamas right now …
There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan – if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.
He did not elaborate, but the US urged Israel last week to allow Muslims to worship at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
It came as Republican presidential frontrunner and former US president Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel’s war in Gaza on Tuesday, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting, AFP reports.
When asked during an interview on Fox News if he was “in Israel’s camp.” he responded “Yes”. The interviewer then asked if the former president was “on board” with the way Israel was executing its offensive in Gaza. “You’ve got to finish the problem,” Trump responded.
Opening summary
It has gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
US President Joe Biden has called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the start of Ramadan, as Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, says the talks would continue for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” the US president told reporters from Maryland. Ramadan is set to begin early next week.
It is as the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel’s war in Gaza, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting. When asked during an interview on Fox News if he was “in Israel’s camp”, Trump responded “yes”. The interviewer then asked if the former president was “on board” with the way Israel was executing its offensive in Gaza. “You’ve got to finish the problem,” Trump responded.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan. Hamas negotiators stayed in Cairo for a third day of ceasefire talks on Tuesday after two days yielded no breakthrough. Two days of talks between Hamas and international mediators broke up in the Egyptian capital without any significant breakthroughs, Palestinian officials said, after Israel declined to send a delegation to the latest round of negotiations. But leaders from Hamas were reportedly expected to hold more talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators over the prospects of reaching a ceasefire deal.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that it was in the hands of Hamas whether to accept a deal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages.
An internal UN report described widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, including beatings, dog attacks, the prolonged use of stress positions and sexual assault. Compiled by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), the report was largely based on interviews of Palestinian detainees released at the Kerem Shalom crossing point since December, when UNRWA staff were present to provide humanitarian support.
Children are dying of starvation in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said. In a post on X, he said the organisation’s visits over the weekend to the al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, in northern Gaza, were the first since early October, and produced “grim findings”. The WHO chief described severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation and serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies at the health facilities. Adding to concerns about the widespread malnutrition in the enclave, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said on Tuesday that “the situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza”. He said that 1 in 6 children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza. “With children starting … to die from starvation, that should be an alarm like no other,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva, separately. At least 15 children have died from starvation and dehydration in a single hospital, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, reports Agence France-Presse.
UN experts have condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a “massacre”. In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,” adding: “Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the continuing tension with Hezbollah militants at the border with Lebanon was moving the situation nearer to a military escalation, Reuters reported. “We are committed to the diplomatic process, however Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” he said in a statement after a meeting with US special envoy Amos Hochstein.
NBC News has been told by US officials that Kamala Harris’ speech on Sunday, in which the US vice-president called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept a deal to release hostages in return for a six-week cessation of hostilities, was watered down by officials at the national security council.
At least 30,631 Palestinians have been killed and 72,043 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 97 Palestinian people were killed and 123 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
American forces shot down three drones and a missile fired toward a destroyer in the Red Sea on Tuesday, the US military said, after Yemen’s Houthis announced they had targeted two of Washington’s warships. “US Central Command (Centcom) forces shot down one anti-ship ballistic missile and three one-way attack unmanned aerial systems launched from Iranian-backed Houthi controlled areas of Yemen toward USS Carney (DDG 64) in the Red Sea,” the military command said in a statement. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said earlier in the day that their forces had targeted two US destroyers in the Red Sea “with a number of naval missiles and drones.” reports Agence France-Presse.
The sinking of a bulk carrier off the coast of Yemen after a Houthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts have warned.
Pro-Palestinian and human rights advocates in Canada on have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop it from allowing companies to export military goods and technology to Israel, Reuters reports.
Chile says it will exclude Israeli firms from Latin America’s biggest aerospace fair, to be held in Santiago in April. It did not give a reason, but the government of leftist President Gabriel Boric has been critical of what he has called Israel’s “disproportionate” response to the 7 October attack by Hamas, reports Agence France-Presse.
