Joe Biden has committed a “strategic mistake” by “bear-hugging” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he prosecutes war with Hamas, a leading congressional progressive Democrat and Biden campaign surrogate said.
“The bear-hugging of Netanyahu has been a strategic mistake,” Ro Khanna said, accusing the Israeli leader of conducting “a callous war” in Gaza, in defiance of the United States.
Speaking to One Decision, a podcast co-hosted by Sir Richard Dearlove, a former British intelligence chief, Khanna, from California, also called Netanyahu “insufferably arrogant”, for acting as if he is “somehow an equal” to Biden.
Summary of the day …
It is 5pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …
One of the most senior figures in US politics, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, has used a speech in the US on Thursday morning to call for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza and say that Israel has lost its way in its war on Gaza, adding that Benjamin Netanyahu should call an election.
The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two Israeli settler outposts in the occupied West Bank. It marks the first time the US has imposed sanctions on entire outposts rather than on individuals. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Gaza health ministry officials have claimed that Israeli fire killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as crowds of residents awaited aid trucks in Gaza City overnight. Residents and health officials said Palestinians were rushing to get aid supplies at the Kuwait Roundabout in northern Gaza City late on Wednesday evening when Israeli forces opened fire. Reuters reports the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. The claims have not been independently verified. The location is the same as where more than 100 Palestinians were killed as they waited for an aid delivery near Gaza City on 29 February.
31,341 people have now been killed by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza according to the Hamas-led health ministry in the territory. It added that 73,134 people have been wounded. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures issued during the conflict.
Israel’s military has claimed to be “continuing to operate in Khan Younis, conducting targeted raids on terror targets and eliminating terrorists”. It says it targeted fighters who had attempted to launch a rocket into Israel, and destroyed rocket launchers in the Hamad area.
The charity sending food aid to Gaza on a ship travelling across the Mediterranean from Cyprus is loading a second boat with supplies, which it hopes will set off in the coming days. Pallets containing 300 tonnes of food aid – 50% more than the first shipment – are expected to be screened and loaded by the end of Thursday, but there is no indication yet when it will leave the port of Larnaca. Arvind Das of the International Rescue Committee said the aid en route via water was “a drop in the ocean looking at the need”.
A man in his 50s has been critically injured during a stabbing attack in Beit Kama shopping complex in Israel.
Relatives of some of those believed to still be held in Gaza by Hamas staged a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, temporarily blocking a highway. About 40 relatives blocked the road, while holding banners saying “We want them alive, not in coffins” and carrying large pictures of female hostages.
Israel’s military has said it struck what it called “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” inside Lebanon on Thursday morning. It also said it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” heading into Israel.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has accused Israeli security forces of preventing ambulances reaching sick or wounded people 95 times in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October. It says that they have “endangered lives in violation of international humanitarian law”.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office has reported an incident 50 nautical miles (92km) from Aden, which involved an explosion near a vessel. It reports the vessel received no damage and there are no injuries, and it is proceeding to its next port of call.
This live blog is pausing now. You can find our latest coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here.
Updated
US Senate majority leader Schumer: Netanyahu is 'major obstacle to peace' and should call election in Israel
One of the most senior figures in US politics, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, has used a speech in the US on Thursday morning to call for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza and say that Israel has lost its way in its war on Gaza, adding that Benjamin Netanyahu should call an election.
Reuters reports Schumer said it was a “grave mistake” for Israel to reject a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis.
Having received a copy of the speech in advance, Associated Press reports that Schumer intended to describe Israel’s prime minister as a “major obstacle to peace” who has “all too frequently bowed to the demands of extremists”, adding “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah”.
He is to say Netanyahu “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.”
Schumer intervention comes five months after Israel launched its military assault on Gaza after the 7 October surprise attack inside southern Israel that killed about 1,140 people and during which about 240 people were abducted and seized as hostages by Hamas.
The Hamas-led ministry of health in the territory says the Israeli military operation has claimed over 31,340 Gazan lives, many of them women and children. Much of the population of Gaza is displaced, and UN agencies have warned there is a severe risk of famine as the distribution of humanitarian aid has been restricted.
Schumer will also say that “a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.”
“As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may,” Schumer will say. “But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice.”
The speech comes the same day that the US announced new sanctions on three West Bank settlers and two Israeli-settler outposts in the territory it has occupied since 1967.
US treasury confirms new sanctions on Israeli settler outposts in occupied West Bank
The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two Israeli settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports.
It marks the first time the US has imposed sanctions on entire outposts rather than on indivduals. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent at the Times of Israel, reports on social media that Israel’s security forces have identified the assailant in the Beit Kama stabbing.
The terrorist who carried out the stabbing attack at the Beit Kama junction is identified by the Shin Bet as Fadi Abu Altyaf, 22, an Israeli citizen from Rahat and originally from the Gaza Strip.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 14, 2024
Altyaf's mother is from the Bedouin city of Rahat, and his father is from the Gaza…
Israeli media is reporting that a man in his 50s has been critically injured during a stabbing attack in Beit Kama shopping complex.
Gaza health ministry claims six killed awaiting aid trucks after Israeli fire
Gaza health ministry officials have claimed that Israeli fire killed six Palestinians and wounded dozens of others as crowds of residents awaited aid trucks in Gaza City overnight.
Residents and health officials said Palestinians were rushing to get aid supplies at the Kuwait Roundabout in northern Gaza City late on Wednesday evening when Israeli forces opened fire. Reuters reports the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. The claims have not been independently verified.
The location is the same as where more than 100 Palestinians were killed as they waited for an aid delivery near Gaza City on 29 February. Earlier, Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, had said residents had begun viewing the Kuwait roundabout as “a death trap”.
Palestinian news agency Wafa earlier gave the figures from the reported overnight incident as “the murder of six Palestinians and the injury of at least 83 others”, saying they were taken to the al-Shifa medical complex. Video which claimed to be posted from the scene appeared to show several wounded or dead Palestinians being transported on a truck.
The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood and Helena Smith report on food aid being sent to Gaza from Cyprus.
The charity sending food aid to Gaza on a ship travelling across the Mediterranean from Cyprus is loading a second boat with supplies, which it hopes will set off in the coming days.
Pallets containing 300 tonnes of food aid – 50% more than the first shipment – are expected to be screened and loaded by the end of Thursday, but there is no indication yet when it will leave the port of Larnaca.
The supplies include cans of beans, carrots, tuna, chickpeas and corn, plus parboiled rice, flour, oil and salt.
The first ship, which is towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of aid, enough for half a million meals, is expected to arrive on the Gaza coast in the coming days after leaving Larnarca on Tuesday.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), a US-based food aid charity working with the governments of Cyprus and the UAE and the Spanish NGO Open Arms, is not releasing details of the ship’s whereabouts for security reasons.
Theodoros Gotsis, spokesperson for Cyprus’s foreign ministry, said the Spanish-flagged aid ship was making “good progress” and on course for the Gaza coast. It was taking longer than expected to arrive because the boat was by necessity moving very slowly.
Tracking apps had “been jammed” because the ship was sailing in seas off a war zone where communication was patchy, he said.
WCK said it had an additional 500 tonnes of aid in Cyprus ready to be loaded in what it hoped would be a series of journeys across the Mediterranean, which have been given the name Operation Safeena, meaning boat or vessel in Arabic.
A freed Israeli hostage who was kidnapped at the Supernova music festival after being shot in the leg has told of his ordeal of being held by Hamas captors.
During the 54 days that Itay Regev, 19, was held in Gaza, he was told the Israeli government did not want him back and that hostages were being killed by Israeli strikes.
“It was kind of like psychological warfare where they wanted to make me fear more of the strikes rather than my captors,” he said during a visit to London.
“I didn’t realise I was being taken captive,” Regev said as he recalled being driven across the border. From the back of the truck with his hands bound and surrounded by attackers, he said he could hear cheers and laughter. “I thought I was going into Gaza and they’re taking us there to kill us,” he said.
In November, a temporary ceasefire allowed for the release of Regev, his sister Maya and more than 100 other hostages, in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. As recent negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire appear to have stalled, Regev said the government’s top priority should be returning the estimated remaining 130 hostages.
“There is no point of the ceasefire if the hostages are not going back,” said Regev whose friend Omer Shem-Tov, 21, remains in captivity. “That’s the main goal.”
Read more of Geneva Abdul’s report here: Freed Israeli hostage describes ‘psychological warfare’ by Hamas captors
Summary of the day so far …
It is 2pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …
A senior official at the European Commission has said there are already pockets of famine happening in Gaza. European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič told the media that famine could spread to the whole of the region and urged Israel to open more road routes to deliver aid, saying airdrops and sea routes could not make up for opening more land routes.
The aid ship, the Spanish-flagged Open Arms, which left Cyprus yesterday, is expected to reach Gaza’s shores having departed from Larnaca. The vessel is towing a barge with up to 200 tonnes of water, food and vital medicines. Cyprus, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, the US and UK are expected to make a joint statement “on what comes next,” a well-placed insider told the Guardian. Arvind Das of the International Rescue Committee said the aid en route was “a drop in the ocean looking at the need”.
31,341 people have now been killed by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza according to the Hamas-led health ministry in the territory. It added that 73,134 people have been wounded. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures issued during the conflict.
Israel’s military has claimed to be “continuing to operate in Khan Younis, conducting targeted raids on terror targets and eliminating terrorists”. It says it targeted fighters who had attempted to launch a rocket into Israel, and destroyed rocket launchers in the Hamad area.
Relatives of some of those believed to still be held in Gaza by Hamas staged a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, temporarily blocking a highway. About 40 relatives blocked the road, while holding banners saying “We want them alive, not in coffins” and carrying large pictures of female hostages.
Israel’s military has said it struck what it called “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” inside Lebanon on Thursday morning. It also said it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” heading into Israel.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has accused Israeli security forces of preventing ambulances reaching sick or wounded people 95 times in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October. It says that they have “endangered lives in violation of international humanitarian law”.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office has reported an incident 50 nautical miles (92km) from Aden, which involved an explosion near a vessel. It reports the vessel received no damage and there are no injuries, and it is proceeding to its next port of call.
In the US, Axios has reported that US president Joe Biden’s administration is set to impose further sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements.
In an operational update, Israel’s military has said it struck what it called “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” inside Lebanon this morning with fighter jets.
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
Some of Westminster’s more wizened MPs and peers were left dabbing away tears in London on Wednesday listening to the painful testimony of young Israelis, some in their early teens, as they pleaded for more help to secure the release of their family and friends still held hostage in Gaza. Some just asked for the return of the body of their loved ones, so they could start to grieve.
The raw emotive power of the meeting in Westminster attended by Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell and politicians from all parties stemmed from the youthfulness of those speaking and their determination to make a humanitarian, and not political appeal for the release of the hostages.
Amit Levy spoke about his 19-year-old sister Naama Levy. A video of her capture on the back of a Jeep has been shown many times. “It has been 159 days. We still don’t know anything about where she is. Where does she sleep? Does she eat? Who is she with? Is she alone? Is she with other hostages? Does she have anyone to talk to?”. He admits in his nightmares he fears she has been sexually abused.
“Naama is a loving soul, quiet and soft spoken and she is the kindest person I know, she believes in the good nature of human beings and trusts in making the world a better place in everything she does. She wants to be a diplomat so she can make the world a kinder place. She cannot do that from Gaza where she is suffering from the worst kind of brutality.”
Shay Benjamin, the daughter of Ron Benjamin, who was captured while riding his bicycle early on 7 October spoke of her fear. “We cannot take this as the new normal. We do not know if he is alive, beaten, or even raped. We do not know anything. We need your help. It is not about Jews. It is not about Muslims. These are terrorists. It is not about anything but human beings”.
Amit Shem Tov had the horrific experience of watching his brother Omer’s phone location getting ever closer to Gaza after he was captured at the Nova music festival. Later he felt obliged to show his mother a video of her son, and his brother lying flat down in a truck full of guns.
He recalled “Once she said she was ready and saw the video, she started crying and screaming. That is the worst condition I have seen my mum be in, and I would never wish that for any other mother in the world.”
Margaret Hodge, the opposition Labour MP closed the meeting saying “You are so young. To have this horror forced upon you at a stage of your life when you should have so much hope is unbearably vile.”
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office has reported an incident 50 nautical miles (92km) from Aden, which involved an explosion near a vessel. It reports the vessel received no damage and there are no injuries, and it is proceeding to its next port of call.
More details soon …
A senior intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Force’s southern command has said he will step down from his role after it emerged he was involved in a relationship with a subordinate officer.
A spokesperson for Israel’s military said: “The officer will end his position immediately after he behaved in a manner that is not in accordance with the norms of commanders and the values of the IDF.”
The relationship is believed to have commenced after the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza which began after the surprise Hamas attack inside southern Israel on 7 October which killed about 1,140 people.
Itay Blumental, military correspondent Kan News, notes that this has happened “against the background of the biggest intelligence failure in the history of the IDF and the security establishment.”
EU humanitarian aid lead: pockets of Gaza already experiencing famine
A senior official at the European Commission has said there are already pockets of famine happening in Gaza.
Reuters reports Janez Lenarčič, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, told the media that famine could spread to the whole of the region.
He urged Israel to open more road routes to deliver aid to Gaza, saying that airdrops and sea routes could not make up for opening more land routes for aid. He also appealed for a surge in funding.
The Times of Israel reports that the IDF claims it successfully intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” earlier that entered Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports Israeli planes have overflown Jezzine in southern Lebanon. There are unconfirmed images circulating social media appearing to show airstrikes have been carried out. Israel and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon have repeatedly exchanged fire since 7 October.
The aid ship from Cyprus expected to arrive on Gaza’s shores is only “a drop in the ocean” of what is needed to address the acute crisis in the territory, the International Rescue Committee’s lead on the crisis said late yesterday.
Arvind Das has described severe malnutrition and insufficient water and sanitation in Gaza after leading four teams of medical professionals from the IRC and Medical Aid for Palestinians into the territory since December.
“Two hundred tonnes is a drop in the ocean looking at the need,” Das said from Cairo having recently returned from Gaza. “I see malnutrition in the camps, in the hospitals, in the shelters, I see it literally everywhere. It’s only gotten worse.”
When carrying out a recent rapid assessment of formal and informal shelters, Das said the lack of food, water or sanitation facilities in Gaza was evident. In one crowded shelter, he saw women delivering babies in spaces as confined as 1.5 metres. The drinking water available to sheltering civilians is less than 200ml per person daily.
While none of the 47 metric tonnes of aid the IRC has been able to supply have been rejected from entering Gaza, the IRC said they have refrained from putting items in trucks they otherwise want to but which are on a list of items not permitted to enter Gaza, including items needed to ensure a safe water supply.
Das described seeing hundreds of aid trucks rejected as they are subjected to rules and guidelines that he said “often don’t make sense”.
Of all the crises Das has worked in, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan and Syria, he said the stark difference in Gaza is the number of women and children killed or wounded by the conflict.
“Almost 75%, 80% of the wounded that are children, and to see babies, and children and women, this I have never seen in Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere else,” said Das. “Here, intentionally, I’ve seen the targeting of hospitals, schools, shelters, that’s very hard to understand the logic and the rationale, that’s the difference.”
31,341 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October by Israeli military offensive – ministry
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza has issued updated casualty figures, stating that 69 more Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
This brings the total death toll since Israel launched its military offensive in the Gaza Strip to 31,341. Additionally, 73,134 people have been wounded.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that among the casualties in the last 24 hours one Palestinian was killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the Jabalia refugee camp, and two Palestinians were killed and several injured in an Israeli drone attack on a civilian vehicle in Rafah.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures issued during the conflict.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has posted to social media to accuse Israeli security forces of preventing ambulances reaching sick or wounded people 95 times in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October. It says that they have “endangered lives in violation of international humanitarian law”.
Since the beginning of the war on the #Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces have prevented the Palestine Red Crescent ambulances from reaching the wounded and sick in the West Bank 95 times, endangered lives in violation of international humanitarian law. #NotATarget❌ #IHL pic.twitter.com/s6ltdl5qCz
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 14, 2024
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, has said there is a despondent mood about the prospects of getting aid, particularly in the north of the Gaza Strip.
He writes:
We heard from a hungry and largely traumatised population stranded in the Gaza Strip asking what is the purpose of getting those trucks into Gaza and its northern area if they’re getting shot at. It is getting very difficult and there is so much danger involved in the whole process. The Kuwaiti roundabout is now known as a death trap.
Unconfirmed reports overnight, via the Palestinian news agency Wafa, suggest that six people may have been killed and dozens injured while waiting to receive aid in northern Gaza at the same location that more than 100 people were killed earlier in the month.
Here are some images from Tel Aviv, where relatives of some of those believed to be held in Gaza as hostages by Hamas have been staging a protest which has blocked a highway.
This post was amended at 8.42 GMT. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital city. Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government and Tel Aviv is the country’s diplomatic and financial centre.
Updated
US set to impose further sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements – reports
Overnight in the US, Axios has reported what it has described as an exclusive, that US president Joe Biden’s administration is set to impose further sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements.
Barak Ravid wrote:
The Biden administration is expected to impose new sanctions as soon as Thursday on two illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank that were used as a base for attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians, three US officials told Axios. It would be first time US sanctions are imposed against entire outposts and not just against individuals.
Protest by hostage relatives blocks highway in Tel Aviv
Relatives of some of those believed to still be held in Gaza by Hamas have staged a demonstration in Tel Aviv this morning, temporarily blocking a road. Bar Peleg of Haaretz reported that about 40 relatives blocked a highway, while holding banners saying “We want them alive, not in coffins”.
לאחר כעשרים דק ואחרי שהגיע למקום כוח משטרה המפגינות וקרובי המשפחות התפנו מהמקום. pic.twitter.com/HzA6ruZvyx
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) March 14, 2024
About 134 Israelis are still believed to be held captive inside Gaza, however it is not clear how many of them are still alive.
Israel claims to have located and destroyed rocket launchers inside Gaza Strip
In its latest operational briefing, Israel’s military has claimed to be “continuing to operate in Khan Younis, conducting targeted raids on terror targets and eliminating terrorists.”
It says it targeted fighters who had attempted to launch a rocket into Israel, and destroyed rocket launchers in the Hamad area.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. It has just gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …
Israel claimed its operations inside the Gaza Strip have led to the discovery and destruction of rocket launcher sites in its latest update. It said it had targeted fighters who had been attempting to launch rockets into Israel
Relatives of those believed to be held in Gaza as hostages by Hamas have staged a demonstration demanding their release in Tel Aviv. The protest blocked a highway
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said one of its aid warehouses in the Gaza Strip was “hit” on Wednesday, injuring “scores” of people. An AFP photographer saw victims of the incident arriving at al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, at least one of whom was identified by other people at the hospital as a UN employee.
The aid ship, the Spanish-flagged Open Arms, which left Cyprus yesterday, is expected to reach Gaza’s shores having departed from Larnaca. The vessel is towing a barge with up to 200 tonnes of water, food and vital medicines. Cyprus, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, the US and UK are expected to make a joint statement “on what comes next,” a well-placed insider told the Guardian.
Four US army vessels departed a base in Virginia on Tuesday carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast to facilitate aid shipments. The new facility – which will consist of an offshore platform and a pier to bring aid ashore – is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark”, US army Brig Gen Brad Hinson told journalists.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that it had delivered its ‘first successful’ aid convoy to northern Gaza since 20 February. In a post on social media platform X, the WFP said it had “delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday”, but called for “deliveries every day” and “entry points directly into the north”.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of Unrwa, said on Tuesday, that “the number of children reported killed in just over four months in Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world combined” and described it as “staggering”. In a social media post on X, Lazzarini wrote: “This war is a war on children.”
An Israeli drone strike on a car outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday killed a member of Hamas from the nearby Palestinian camp of Rashidieh. The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Hadi Mustafa in southern Lebanon and called him a “significant” Hamas operative. Hamas’s Al Aqsa television said Mustafa was a leader of the group’s armed wing.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II met Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares Bueno on Wednesday. In a message posted to social media, Jordan’s royal household said that during the meeting, the king “stressed that the tragic humanitarian conditions in Gaza require international action to prevent further deterioration”, adding that Jordan appreciated Spain’s position on resuming Unrwa funding, the two-state solution and in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted UK asylum in a case said to be unprecedented. “Hasan”, whose real identity is not being disclosed for his own protection, claimed he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”.
