Closing summary
It is 6pm in Rafah, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 7.30pm in Tehran. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
G7 foreign ministers on Saturday said they were worried by the risk of forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza and the possible consequences of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah region.
At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalise ties with the country, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday. Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlighted the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Germany was asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza and not to open a second front on its northern border with Lebanon. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Scholz also said it should be made impossible for Iran to exploit the conflict to expand its influence and urged the need for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.
Head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza in a statement issued on Saturday. Haniyeh added that Hamas “will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza, and lifting of the unjust siege”. He also insisted that Israel must free Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in any upcoming swap deal.
The US president, Joe Biden said he doesn’t expect an offensive on the densely populated Rafah region of Gaza. Speaking at a press conference held after the announcement by Moscow of the death of dissident Alexei Navalny, Biden said a ‘temporary ceasefire’ was necessary to evacuate hostages held in Gaza.
The US is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel even as the US pushes for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Citing current and former US officials, the US news publication said the proposed arms delivery is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said that “to address the Red Sea issue, the root cause must be resolved, and the root cause is the ongoing fighting in Gaza”. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Yi said: “China’s position is clear on that: first, an immediate ceasefire must be realised. No more fighting.”
Iran unveiled two new air defence systems on Saturday, state media reported. The Arman missile system “has a medium range and a high altitude that can identify targets at 180 kilometres and engage and destroy them at 120 kilometres,” defence minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said, while the new Azarakhsh defence system can be mounted on multiple vehicle types and “uses radar, electro-optical system and thermal seekers to detect and track its target”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) published photographs, which it said showed “the brutality with which the Israeli occupation forces treated two doctors whom they arrested a week ago from al-Amal hospital”, on its X account. The PRCS also published a post on X on Friday saying that Israel had “deliberately” created “false narratives about the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent by publishing a video of an ambulance and paramedics providing treatment to an injured fighter”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a press conference this evening at 7.30 pm (5.30pm GMT), said the Times of Israel. Netanyahu’s address comes as international pressure grows on Israel to hold off launching an offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and amid an apparent deadlock in talks for a hostage deal.
Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in an interview published on Saturday. Calls for his resignation were also part of the Israeli government’s push, he told the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.
Gaza’s largest functioning hospital was under siege on Friday in Israel’s war with Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos as warplanes struck Rafah, officials said. Reuters reported that Israeli forces remained in Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Younis after raiding it early on Thursday. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said five intensive-care patients died on Friday due to power outages and lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack.
Israel has not presented specific evidence that Hamas is diverting UN aid, said David Satterfield, the Biden administration’s special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues. He also said Israel’s recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely. Israel has alleged repeatedly that Hamas is diverting aid, including fuel, after it enters Gaza, a claim denied by UN aid agencies.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Madrid on Saturday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Six ministers from Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet took part – all five from hard-left party Sumar, his junior coalition partners, as well as transport minister Óscar Puente of the premier’s Socialist party.
At least 28,858 Palestinians have been killed and 68,667 injured in Gaza since the 7 October, says the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
An urgent joint statement warning of the “catastrophic” consequences of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah has been issued by CEOs of humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations. It includes signatories from Oxfam, Amnesty International, ActionAid, War Child, the Danish Refugee Council and Handicap International. The Israeli military offensive has made it “virtually impossible for our collective agencies to meaningfully and effectively deliver humanitarian work,” they said in a joint statment, which also criticised the “silence” and “material support for Israel’s military operations by powerful nations”, which it says “signals distressing complicity in Gaza’s deepening crisis”.
A climate of fear pervades a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where patients and doctors are reeling from last month’s deadly raid by Israeli agents disguised as medics, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Israeli military justified the killing inside a medical facility, which are granted special protection under international law, by saying the trio were “terrorists” who were “hiding” in the hospital, but the The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by the attack. As well as being afraid of a repeat of the special forces raid, the killings have also created suspicion among patients and medics, reports AFP.
Doctors have warned that patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza are failing to get treatment. The chronically ill are the hidden casualties of the war, as access to water, food and medicine is severely restricted, said Guillemette Thomas, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine.
On Friday, police killed one person as it opened fire after a crowd charged toward an aid truck that had emerged from the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the local crossings authority said. Last week, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed three senior police commanders in Rafah, the first entry point for aid deliveries. Two other officers were killed in another strike.
Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah. Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday that four anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched on Friday from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea. At least three of the missiles were launched towards oil tanker Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged and Denmark-owned vessel, said Centcom. Earlier on Saturday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux.
At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital, says health ministry
At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in the Nasser hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Israel has for weeks concentrated its military operations in Khan Younis, the home town of Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the 7 October attack that triggered the war, reports AFP.
Intense fighting has raged around the Nasser hospital – one of the Palestinian territory’s last major medical facilities that remains even partly operational.
The power was cut and the generators stopped after the raid, leading to the deaths of six patients due to a lack of oxygen, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“Newborn children are at a risk of dying in the next few hours,” the ministry warned on Saturday.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Madrid on Saturday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, reports AFP.
The crowd made its way through closed-off streets in the Spanish capital from Atocha train station to the central Plaza del Sol square behind a large banner that read “Freedom for Palestine”. Many waved Palestinian flags or carried signs that read “peace for Palestine” and “don’t ignore Palestinian suffering”, say AFP.
Six ministers from Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet took part – all five from hard-left party Sumar, his junior coalition partners, as well as transport minister Óscar Puente of the premier’s Socialist party.
“We need an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing and attacks against innocents, we must achieve the release of all hostages,” Puente told reporters at the start of the march.
About 3,000 people took part in the demonstration, according to the central government’s delegation to Madrid, a much smaller turnout than the last protest in the Spanish capital on 27 January, when about 20,000 participated.
G7 concerned by risk of forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
G7 foreign ministers on Saturday said they were worried by the risk of forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza and the possible consequences of an Israeli military operation in the Rafah region.
“They called for urgent action to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, particularly the plight of 1.5 million civilians sheltering in Rafah and they expressed deep concern for the potentially devastating consequences on the civilian population of Israel’s further full scale military operation in that area,” according to a statement released by Italy, which is chairing the G7.
The foreign ministers of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US met in Munich on Saturday.
PRCS publish photographs on X, which it says, shows 'the brutality with which Israeli forces treated two doctors'
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has published photographs, which it says show “the brutality with which the Israeli occupation forces treated two doctors whom they arrested a week ago from al-Amal hospital”, on its X account.
Alongside four photographs of the injuries, bruising and scabbing on various parts of the two doctors’ bodies, the PRCS wrote:
These images show the brutality with which the Israeli occupation forces treated two doctors whom they arrested a week ago from al-Amal hospital, subjected to torture, beating, and humiliation before being released yesterday.
The Israeli occupation continues to arrest 12 PRCS teams, including 7 who were arrested from inside al-Amal hospital about a week ago. PRCS expresses deep concern for the safety of its detained teams, whose fate remains unknown, and calls on the international community to urgently intervene to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release our detained teams and provide protection for PRCS teams working in the Gaza Strip.”
The PRCS also published a post on X on Friday saying that Israel had “deliberately” created “false narratives about the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent by publishing a video of an ambulance and paramedics providing treatment to an injured fighter”.
It said: “The vehicle that appears in the video is not a Palestinian Red Crescent vehicle, and the two paramedics who appear in the video are clearly not wearing the uniform of Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews.”
Updated
Today in Deir al-Balah, middle #Gaza, families queue for hours to receive a hot meal.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 16, 2024
Starvation looms. Desperately needed aid is not going into📍#Gaza
People across the #GazaStrip are stalked by hunger, disease and death, with those in the north on the verge of famine. pic.twitter.com/3oevQeYnjq
My colleague, Emine Sinmaz in Jerusalem, has spoken to Iris Haim, the mother of an Israeli hostage who was mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers. You can read the piece here:
Iris Haim cannot bear to think about how close her kidnapped son came to freedom before he was mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers. After being held captive by Hamas in Gaza for more than two months, Yotam Haim and two other Israeli hostages escaped and evaded their captors for five days, only to be killed by the IDF.
Haim has repeatedly insisted she does not blame the soldiers who mistakenly identified Yotam as a threat. But she said it was devastating to know how close she had come to being reunited with the 28-year-old, who had dreamed of becoming a professional musician.
“Yotam was actually so close to coming back home,” Haim said in an interview in Jerusalem. “It could ruin me but I’ve decided that I don’t want to think about this last moment. I don’t want to think ‘what if?’. Because if I think ‘what if?’, it will be very difficult to continue. I will stay in the past and Yotam will not come back. So I want to forget the last moment. And I can do it. I can. I don’t think about this. I just think about his bravery.”
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday that four anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched on Friday from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea.
At least three of the missiles were launched towards oil tanker Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged and Denmark-owned vessel, said Centcom. It also confirmed that there were no reported injuries or damage from Pollux or any other ship in the area.
Additionally, Centcom said it “successfully conducted two self-defence strikes against one mobile anti-ship cruise missile and one mobile unmanned surface vessel (USV) in Yemen” on Friday. Centcom said it identified the mobile missile and USV in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and “determined it presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region”.
Feb. 16 Summary of Red Sea activities
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 17, 2024
From 1:15 p.m. (Sanaa time), Feb. 16, to 1 a.m., Feb 17, four anti-ship ballistic missiles launched from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea. It is assessed that at least three of the missiles were launched… pic.twitter.com/6OJzgYWBwr
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said that “to address the Red Sea issue, the root cause must be resolved, and the root cause is the ongoing fighting in Gaza.”
He added:
China’s position is clear on that: first, an immediate ceasefire must be realised. No more fighting.
And second, to make sure the humanitarian corridors are unimpeded.
And third, hold an international peace conference as soon as possible to revive the two-state solution.
We cannot allow this humanitarian disaster to continue any more.
'Extraordinary' opportunity for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East, says US secretary of state
There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalise ties with the country, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday.
Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlighted the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.
“Virtually every Arab country” now “wants to integrate Israel into the region, to normalise relations if they haven’t already done so, to provide security assurances and commitments so that Israel can feel more safe and more secure,” he said.
“At the same time, there are genuine efforts under way, led by Arab countries, to reform, revitalise revamp the Palestinian Authority so that it can be more effective in representing the interests of the Palestinian people, and could be a better partner for Israel in that future,” Blinken added.
Also speaking in Munich on Saturday, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said that to establish a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, there needs to be a guarantee that something like the 7 October attacks by Hamas can never happen again.
Updated
Iran unveiled two new air defence systems on Saturday, state media reported. “The Arman anti-ballistic missile system and the Azarakhsh low-altitude air defence system, built by the ministry of defence, were unveiled this morning,” the official IRNA news agency said, reports AFP.
The unveiling of the new weapons comes at a time of heightened regional tensions with the war between Israel and Hamas raging into a fifth month.
Even before the war, Israel and Iran were implacable foes, with Israel fiercely opposed to Tehran’s nuclear programme. In 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Iran to face a “credible military threat” to prevent it attaining nuclear weapons.
Tehran has always insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful and denies seeking a nuclear bomb.
The Arman missile system revealed on Saturday “has a medium range and a high altitude that can identify targets at 180 kilometres and engage and destroy them at 120 kilometres,” defence minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said during the unveiling ceremony, IRNA reported.
The agency said the system could take on “six targets simultaneously” while the Azarakhsh defence system can be mounted on multiple vehicle types and “uses radar, electro-optical system and thermal seekers to detect and track its target”.
Updated
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a press conference this evening at 7.30 pm (5.30pm GMT), says the Times of Israel.
The publication says Netanyahu’s address, after which he will also answer questions from journalists, comes as international pressure grows on Israel to hold off launching an offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and amid an apparent deadlock in talks for a hostage deal.
US envoy says Israel has not presented evidence that Hamas diverted UN aid deliveries in Gaza
Israel has not presented specific evidence that Hamas is diverting UN aid, and its recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely, a top US envoy said in rare public criticism of Israel reports The Associated Press (AP).
With the departure of police escorts following Israeli strikes, criminal gangs are increasingly targeting the convoys, said David Satterfield, the Biden administration’s special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues. He said the lawlessness as well as regular Israeli protests at crossing points by those opposed to aid going into Gaza have disrupted delivery and distribution.
“We are working with the Israeli government, the Israeli military in seeing what solutions can be found here because everyone wants to see the assistance continue,” Satterfield told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) on Friday. A solution “is going to require some form of security escorts to return.”
Satterfield said that Israeli officials have not presented “specific evidence of diversion or theft” of UN assistance, but that the militants have their own interests in using “other channels of assistance … to shape where and to whom assistance goes.”
Even before the latest setback, the US had said aid reaching Gaza was woefully inadequate. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are packed into the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, having heeded Israeli evacuation orders. Yet nowhere is safe, say AP, with Israel also carrying out airstrikes in Rafah.
Witnesses in Rafah have spoken about how it is common for groups of children and teenagers to try to stop trucks as they enter Gaza and to grab supplies.
On Friday, police opened fire after a crowd charged toward an aid truck that had emerged from the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the local crossings authority, said one person was killed.
Israel has alleged repeatedly that Hamas is diverting aid, including fuel, after it enters Gaza, a claim denied by UN aid agencies. Last week, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed three senior police commanders in Rafah, the first entry point for aid deliveries. Two other officers were killed in another strike.
The police force is controlled by the Hamas-run interior ministry, but Satterfield noted that it also includes those who joined before Hamas seized Gaza in 2007.
Updated
A 'concerted campaign by Israel' is 'aimed at destroying UNRWA', says commissioner general
Israel is waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying UNRWA, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in an interview published on Saturday.
According to AFP, Philippe Lazzarini said calls for his resignation were part of the Israeli government’s push. “Right now we are dealing with an expanded, concerted campaign by Israel aimed at destroying UNRWA,” he told the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.
He said:
It is a long-term political goal because it is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the status of the Palestinian refugees will be resolved once and for all – and with it, the right of return. There is a much larger political goal behind this. Just look at the number of actions Israel is taking against UNRWA.”
He cited measures in the Israeli parliament, such as moves to remove the agency’s VAT exemption and orders for contractors at Israel’s port of Ashdod to “stop handling certain food deliveries for UNRWA”. “And all these demands come from the government,” he added.
Lazzarini says more than 150 UNRWA installations have been hit since the Gaza war began.
Israel has called for Lazzarini to step down following claims that a Hamas tunnel had been discovered under its evacuated Gaza City headquarters. Lazzarini said the tunnel was 20 metres below ground and UNRWA as a humanitarian organisation did not have the capabilities to be examining what was underground in Gaza.
He also said Israel was alone in calling for him to quit and there was “no reason” to comply with a single UN member state’s demand for him to go, “especially since my resignation would not improve the situation at UNRWA”.
“The criticisms are not concerned with me personally, but with the organisation as a whole. The calls for resignation are part of the campaign to destroy UNRWA”, he said.
US plans to send weapons to Israel amid Biden push for ceasefire deal - The Wall Street Journal report
The US is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel even as the US pushes for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Citing current and former US officials, the US news publication said “the proposed arms delivery includes roughly a thousand each of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses”. It is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, which would be paid from US military aid to Israel.
A US official told the WSJ that a “proposed delivery is still being reviewed internally by the administration” and “the details of the proposal could change before the Biden administration notifies congressional committee leaders who would need to approve the transfer”.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
At least 28,858 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, says Gaza health ministry
At least 28,858 Palestinians have been killed and 68,667 injured in Gaza since the 7 October, says the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The death toll is expected to be far higher though as more bodies are believed buried underneath rubble.
Israeli troops searching Nasser hospital arrest more than 100 'terror suspects' - report
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that its special forces soldiers had arrested more than 100 “terror suspects” and are continuing to carry out searches inside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, according to The Times of Israel.
In its report, the publication said Israeli troops had raided several compounds, finding weapons including explosive devices, grenades and Kalashnikov rifles.
Hamas leader blames Israel for lack of progress towards Gaza truce
Head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza in a statement issued on Saturday.
Haniyeh added that Hamas “will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza, and lifting of the unjust siege,” reports Reuters. He also insisted that Israel must free Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in any upcoming swap deal.
Updated
The Munich Security Conference is in its second day and the focus in the evening is set to turn towards the Middle East and the Israel-Hamas conflict, with speeches by King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israel’s president Isaac Herzog as well as panels with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, US state secretary Antony Blinken and Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg are among the officials set to speak on panels on Saturday. The Guardian’s Europe live blog has all the updates as they come in today.
Updated
Fear pervades West Bank hospital after deadly Israeli raid last month
A climate of fear pervades a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where patients and doctors are reeling from last month’s deadly raid by Israeli agents disguised as medics, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
AFP say that at the rehabilitation ward at Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital, two patients recalled hearing the screams of a nurse as Israeli forces reached the third floor.
“I opened the door and saw a man. I didn’t know they were special forces,” said a patient, a grey hoodie pulled up over his head to conceal his face. “The man was choking the nurse with his hand and hit her with the butt of his gun.”
His account matched that of an elderly patient, speaking to AFP while exercising along the corridor clutching a walking frame, who recalled hearing shouting while he stayed put in his room.
Neither knew that through a door just metres away, the Israeli unit shot dead three Palestinians, all militants, including a paraplegic patient hospitalised for months.
The Israeli military justified the killing inside a medical facility, which are granted special protection under international law, by saying the trio were “terrorists” who were “hiding” in the hospital.
“It’s toughest at night,” said the patient, who had been shouted at by the undercover agents to shut his door during the assault. All but one person in the hospital spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, as they were worried about their safety.
AFP said bullet holes were visible in the abandoned hospital bed and an adjacent chair where the young men had been shot. One of the staffers showed AFP photos on his phone of a bullet, another of flesh left on the bed in the 30 January raid.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled”. Such an attack “creates fear and is dangerous for health workers and patients”, said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency’s envoy for the Palestinian territories.
“It reduces the trust in health workers and hospitals, putting them in danger, and also diminishing confidence in the health system, therefore decreasing people’s access to care,” he said in a statement earlier this month.
As well as being afraid of a repeat of the special forces raid – the first such operation in eight years – the killings have also created suspicion among patients and medics, report AFP.
Not knowing how Israeli agents plotted their assault, some have been speculating that a hospital insider could have collaborated with special forces. “For more than a week this informant has been in the imagination, and on my mind,” said the patient, still in his hospital room. “I’m terrified.”
Doctors have warned that patients with chronic illnesses in Gaza are failing to get treatment. The lack of medicine, food and water means thousands of people with asthma, kidney disease or diabetes are unable to treat or control their conditions. Weronika Strzyżyńska and Kaamil Ahmed have written about it here:
Four months of conflict in Gaza is jeopardising the health of thousands of people with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease, diabetes and asthma, doctors have warned.
The chronically ill are the hidden casualties of the war, as access to water, food and medicine is severely restricted, said Guillemette Thomas, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine.
“Hospitals that are still functioning are overwhelmed with injured people, they are not able to deal with chronic illness at all,” she said. “Before the war there were 3,500 hospital beds in Gaza, now there are fewer than 1,000, and hundreds and hundreds of injured. We don’t know how many people are dying because they can’t access healthcare.”
Currently, only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are able to provide any medical services.
When medication is allowed into the territory there are no safe ways of distributing it, Thomas said. “We have some insulin coming in aid trucks, but patients can’t get to the places where it is stocked because of the airstrikes. People are bombed on their way to the hospital.”
In Thursday’s edition of the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast, journalist Ruth Michaelson told Michael Safi how Israel had been justifying a potential ground assault on Rafah, what an invasion on the city would mean for the civilians there, and how Israel’s western allies have responded. You can listen to it here:
Germany is asking asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza, says chancellor
German chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Germany was asking Israel to abide by international law in the conflict in Gaza and not to open a second front on its northern border with Lebanon, reports Reuters.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Scholz also said it should be made impossible for Iran to exploit the conflict to expand its influence and urged the need for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.
Humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations issue urgent joint statement on Rafah
An urgent joint statement warning of the “catastrophic” consequences of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah has been issued by CEOs of humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations. It includes signatories from Oxfam, Amnesty International, ActionAid, War Child, the Danish Refugee Council and Handicap International.
The statement reads:
We are appalled by the harrowing developments in Rafah, Gaza’s most populated area where 1.5 million people are sheltering as their last resort – over half a million of them children. If Israel launches its proposed ground offensive, thousands more civilians will be killed and the current trickle of humanitarian aid risks coming to a complete halt. If this military plan is not stopped immediately, the consequences will be catastrophic.”
It also highlights that “many areas in Gaza have been reduced to rubble and are uninhabitable”, as well as the lack of functional hospitals, food, clean water, shelter and sanitation.
People are living in the most inhumane conditions, many of them out in the open. It defies belief that the Israeli military have forcibly displaced the majority of the population from their homes into Rafah – with six times as many people than before now squeezed into the area – and then announced plans to attack it.”
The humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations that issued the joint statement said “collectively punishing civilians” by denying “adequate shelter, food, clean water and other essentials”, plus obstructing humanitarian aid “may amount to grave breaches of the obligations of an occupying power under international humanitarian law, constituting war crimes”.
Referring to last month’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, which ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory, the joint statement said “not only has this not happened, the situation on the ground has deteriorated further”. “All of the Israeli supposed safe spaces have been compromised, without exception, further proof that there was never truly anywhere safe in Gaza,” it added.
The joint statement, signed by Oxfam’s executive director Amitabh Behar, ActionAid’s acting secretary general Ana Alcalde, Amnesty International’s secretary general Dr Agnès Callamard, the Danish Refugee Council’s secretary general Charlotte Slente, War Child CEO Rob Williams and Handicap International’s CEO Manuel Patrouillard, calls for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire”. They state this is “more urgent than ever”. The statement also calls for the “release of hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians, and full, unhindered access for humanitarian aid and workers”.
The Israeli military offensive has made it “virtually impossible for our collective agencies to meaningfully and effectively deliver humanitarian work”, say the humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations. They also criticised the “silence” and “material support for Israel’s military operations by powerful nations”, which it says “signals distressing complicity in Gaza’s deepening crisis”.
Updated
Egypt building walled enclosure in Sinai for Rafah refugees, photos suggest
Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah.
Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
The videos, dated 15 February, gave little indication of authorities installing water or other infrastructure. Satellite imagery released by Planet Labs on the same day shows cleared strips of land adjacent to the Gaza border.
SFHR said on social media that the videos showed efforts to “establish an isolated area surrounded by walls on the border with the Gaza Strip, with the aim of receiving refugees in the event of a mass exodus”.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Saturday that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux, which US officials said the previous day had been hit by a missile, reports news agency Reuters.
The US state department said on Friday that the Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil bound for India, was hit by a missile on its port side.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against a British oil ship [Pollux] in the Red Sea with a large number of appropriate naval missiles, and the strikes were accurate and direct”, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement.
The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandab strait since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Hamas.
Joe Biden says Rafah offensive not expected – video
The US president said he doesn’t expect an offensive on the densely populated Rafah region of Gaza, the last refuge of Palestinians fleeing Israeli assaults on the besieged territory.
Speaking at a press conference held after the announcement by Moscow of the death of dissident Alexei Navalny, Joe Biden said a ‘temporary ceasefire’ was necessary to evacuate hostages held in Gaza.
Fears grow for besieged Nasser hospital as patients die after Israeli raid
Gaza’s largest functioning hospital was under siege on Friday in Israel’s war with Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos as warplanes struck Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in the enclave, officials said.
Reuters reports that Israeli forces remained in Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Younis after raiding it early on Thursday. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said five intensive-care patients died on Friday due to power outages and lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack.
Israel said it moved into the hospital because Hamas militants were hiding there. The Israeli military said on Friday its troops detained more than 20 militants in the hospital who participated in the 7 October attack on Israel and dozens of others for questioning.
Hamas denies there were militants in the hospital, describing the claim as “lies aimed to cover up for destroying hospitals”.
The Gaza health ministry said the hospital lost power and remained without electricity on Friday, jeopardising patient care. But the Israeli military said it repaired one generator and provided another, ensuring “all vital systems continued to operate”.
Two pregnant women gave birth on Friday with “no water, no food and no way of warming them up” in cold weather, said ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra.
According to the ministry, Israeli soldiers stopped an aid convoy outside the hospital, which was unable to deliver supplies. The military said it provided aid including baby food and water.
The incursion at the hospital raised alarm about patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians sheltering there.
“There are still critically injured and sick patients that are inside the hospital,” said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), which said its staff were trying to reach the hospital after the Israeli raid.
“There is an urgent need to deliver fuel to ensure the continuation of the provision of life-saving services.”
Israel said its soldiers found ammunition and weapons in the hospital, as well as medication bearing names of some hostages.
Opening summary
It has gone 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and this is our latest Guardian blog on the Middle East crisis.
Gaza’s largest functioning hospital is under siege from Israeli forces, leaving trapping patients and doctors as warplanes strike Rafah in the south, officials said.
Israeli troops remained in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis after raiding it early Thursday, with Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry saying five intensive-care patients died on Friday due to power outages and a lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack.
The Israeli army said its troops found medications with the names of Israeli hostages at the hospital during the operation and it detained more than 20 militants involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel. Hamas denies militants were in the hospital.
The Gaza health ministry said the hospital lost power and remained without electricity on Friday, jeopardising patient care. But the Israeli military said “all vital systems continued to operate”.
A witness at Nasser hospital told Agence France-Presse the army had shot “at anyone who moved inside the hospital”.
More on that story shortly. In other key developments:
Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier, four sources told Reuters, in what they described as a contingency move by Cairo. Egypt, which denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian non-governmental organisation, released images showing workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
An exodus of Palestinians into Egypt must be “avoided at all costs” and could be the “nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN high commissioner for refugees said. “The position of Egypt has been very clear: people should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told the BBC from the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Israel will coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and find a way not to harm Egypt’s interests, Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday. When asked where Rafah refugees would go, Israel Katz suggested Khan Younis, Gaza’s second city.
Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at the Munich Security Conference will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were present in Munich on Friday, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.
Negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza appear to have stalled, with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing back hard on Friday against the US vision for after the war, particularly its calls for the creation of a Palestinian state. After speaking overnight with President Joe Biden, Netanyahu wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Israel would not accept “international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians”, saying that if other countries unilaterally recognised a Palestinian state, it would give a “reward to terrorism”.
In their call, Biden again cautioned Netanyahu against moving forward with a military operation in Rafah before coming up with a “credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, the White House said.
Two people were killed and four wounded in what Israeli police said was a shooting attack near a junction in southern Israel on Friday. Authorities in the district said the suspected shooter was killed by an armed civilian.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UK said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in Rafah were killed in an Israeli strike. Husam Zomlot also identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna.
Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said on Friday. A strike on one house in al-Qantara village killed three members of the Amal movement, the group said. Hezbollah separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Wednesday.
The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached “unprecedented levels, as people run out of even animal feed to eat”, development charity ActionAid said. ‘Things will get substantially worse” if Israel proceeds with an operation in Rafah, it said.
Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions including Fatah to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Gaza war and other issues in the Middle East from 29 February, the state-run Tass news agency reported, citing deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
