Closing summary
It is just approaching 6pm in Cairo, Rafah and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog shortly, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Israel’s spy chief was in Paris for talks seeking to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants. The Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, met the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appeared to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting. According to the Times of Israel, an “outline of an agreement” has been reached in talks in Paris this weekend but no official confirmation or further details have yet been shared.
The negotiations came after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by the Israeli prime minister drew criticism from key ally the US and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
More than 100 people were reported killed in overnight strikes across Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry also said dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Hamas said on Saturday that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in cities including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah over the previous 24 hours. Hamas said fighting was raging in the northern Gaza district of Zeitun.
Israel’s military said it was “intensifying the operations” in western Khan Younis using tanks, close-range fire and aircraft. “The soldiers raided the residence of a senior military intelligence operative” in the area and destroyed a tunnel shaft, a military statement said.
An impromptu protest was held on Friday involving dozens of people at the Jabalia refugee camp, reports AFP, as tempers rise about the lack of food and the consequences. One child held up a sign reading: “We didn’t die from airstrikes but we are dying from hunger”, while protesters chanted “No to starvation. No to genocide. No to blockade.”
Pressure has mounted on Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a ceasefire and secure the release of the hostages. A group representing their families planned what it billed as a “huge rally” to demand swifter action, coinciding with the Paris talks on Saturday night. “We keep telling you: bring them back to us! And no matter how,” Avivit Yablonka, 45, whose sister Hanan Yablonka was captured on 7 October, said at a traditional Shabbat dinner for hostage families in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank was inconsistent with international law, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday, signaling a return to longstanding US policy on the issue, which had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alleged on Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust. Lula wrote on X that he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood”, an apparent reference to calls for him to retract his comments. In response to Lula’s initial comments last week, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology.
A two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital in Gaza City, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Friday. The World Food Programme this week said its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the UN warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.
92 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. According to the statement, at least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed and 69,737 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Fears for civilians in Gaza are deepening, with the UN warning of the growing risk of famine. Its main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, said early on Saturday that Palestinians were “in extreme peril while the world watches on”. AFP footage showed distraught Palestinians queueing for food in the territory’s devastated north on Friday and staging a protest decrying their living conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that “without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase”. “Humanitarians need unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid,” said Ocha, to “avert the threat of mass starvation”.
Ocha also highlighted reports from the charity Save the Children who said families are forced to “forage for scraps or food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive”. In its latest update, AFP said a man at the Jabalia refugee camp was so desperate for food to feed his family that he slaughtered two of his horses.
The UN agency in charge of Palestinian affairs (UNRWA) said it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza – where it is not “possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations” – amid increasing reports of famine among people in the area. “The desperate behaviour of hungry and exhausted people is preventing the safe and regular passage of our trucks,” said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations for UNRWA. She added that she was “very wary of how to explain this so as not to make it sound like we are blaming people or describing these things as criminal acts”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday that its ambulance teams had, for the fourth time, carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with Ocha. The PRCS said four ambulance vehicles evacuated 18 injured people, including two newborns who had lost their mothers.
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a significant oil leak, the US military said on Saturday. The vessel suffered significant damage, which caused an 18 mile (29 km) oil slick, said US Central Command (Centcom).
British MPs have said they are fearful of violent attacks as tensions over the war in Gaza had increased threats. Some Labour MPs who have been vocal on Israel and Palestine said they were fearful there could be a violent attack on a politician. While the vast majority of people make their views on the conflict known peacefully, MPs and staff said the politically charged atmosphere had brought an increase in abuse and threats.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has defended the right to lobby UK MPs “in large numbers”, amid reports the group wanted so many protesters to turn up that parliament would “have to lock the doors”. According to the Press Association (PA), the group said the issue of MPs’ security was “serious” but should not be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.
According to the Times of Israel, an “outline of an agreement” has been reached in talks in Paris this weekend. An Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, met the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official in a bid to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The Times of Israel report that an Israeli official quoted by Hebrew multiple media sites says that an “outline of an agreement” was reached by the Israeli, US, Egyptian and Qatari representatives for a temporary ceasefire.
“There were good talks, there’s significant progress,” Channel 12 quotes the official as saying. “We have a basis on which to build a plan and the negotiations.” Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted informed sources saying that the progress at the Paris summit will enable the sides to present to Hamas an updated framework for a deal. “Continuing progress is now up to Hamas,” it quoted an unnamed foreign diplomat saying.
According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli source said that the outline will first be presented to the war cabinet for approval, followed by the wider cabinet. It also quotes the Maariv newspaper as reporting that the war cabinet is set to meet tonight to hear updates from Paris.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday that its ambulance teams had, for the fourth time, carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
According to the update posted on X, the four ambulance vehicles evacuated 18 injured people, including two newborns who had lost their mothers. The PRCS said the individuals were transferred to the International Medical Corps and the Indonesian Field hospitals in Rafah, the European Gaza hospital in Khan Younis, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.
🚨For the fourth time, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser Hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 🚑Four ambulance vehicles… pic.twitter.com/NiVISeV6y6
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 23, 2024
Updated
UNRWA suspends aid to northern Gaza amid ‘collapse of civil order’
The UN agency in charge of Palestinian affairs said it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza – where it is not “possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations” – amid increasing reports of famine among people in the area.
The UN began warning of “pockets of famine” in Gaza last month, with needs particularly acute in the north. Conditions have steadily worsened since, causing a spike in hungry people making fraught attempts to claim aid from passing trucks.
“The desperate behaviour of hungry and exhausted people is preventing the safe and regular passage of our trucks,” said Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). She added that she was “very wary of how to explain this so as not to make it sound like we are blaming people or describing these things as criminal acts”.
“But we want to say that their stopping our trucks to help themselves is no longer making it possible to conduct proper humanitarian operations,” she added.
UNRWA has not been granted permits by the Israeli authorities to deliver aid to northern Gaza for over a month, while humanitarian organisations have increasingly despaired at the tiny trickle of aid permitted into Gaza.
An Israeli delegation led by the Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea travelled to Paris for a fresh push towards a deal to return the remaining hostages, reports AFP.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have all been deeply involved in past negotiations aimed at securing a truce and prisoner-hostage exchanges.
Pressure has mounted on Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a ceasefire and secure the release of the hostages. A group representing their families planned what it billed as a “huge rally” to demand swifter action, coinciding with the Paris talks on Saturday night.
“We keep telling you: bring them back to us! And no matter how,” Avivit Yablonka, 45, whose sister Hanan Yablonka was captured on 7 October, said at a traditional Shabbat dinner for hostage families in Tel Aviv.
White House envoy Brett McGurk held talks this week with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, after speaking to other mediators in Cairo who had met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
A Hamas source said the new plan proposes a six-week pause in the conflict and the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages being held by Hamas.
Barnea and his US counterpart from the CIA helped broker a week-long truce in November that saw the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Hamas say Israeli forces have launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in the last 24 hours
Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in the latest Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said Saturday, after Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.
The talks come after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the US, and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
According to a report by AFP, Hamas said on Saturday that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in cities including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah over the previous 24 hours. The health ministry said at least 92 people were killed.
Israel’s military said it was “intensifying the operations” in western Khan Younis using tanks, close-range fire and aircraft. “The soldiers raided the residence of a senior military intelligence operative” in the area and destroyed a tunnel shaft, a military statement said.
Hamas said fighting was raging in the northern Gaza district of Zeitun.
On Friday, an impromptu protest was held involving dozens of people at the Jabalia refugee camp, reports AFP, as tempers rise about the lack of food and the consequences.
One child held up a sign reading: “We didn’t die from airstrikes but we are dying from hunger.” Another held aloft a placard warning “Famine eats away at our flesh”, while protesters chanted “No to starvation. No to genocide. No to blockade.”
Summary of the day so far
It has just gone 2.30pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest updates from today’s Guardian live blog covering the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis:
More than 100 people were reported killed early on Saturday in overnight strikes across Gaza.
A two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital in Gaza City, said the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Friday. The World Food Programme this week said its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the UN warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.
Israel’s spy chief is in Paris for talks seeking to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants. The Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, will meet the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting.
The negotiations come after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by the Israeli prime minister drew criticism from key ally the US and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank was inconsistent with international law, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday, signaling a return to longstanding US policy on the issue, which had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alleged on Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on harsh rhetoric after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust. Lula wrote on X that he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood”, an apparent reference to calls for him to retract his comments. In response to Lula’s initial comments last week, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology.
92 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, said the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. According to the statement, at least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed and 69,737 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Fears for civilians in Gaza are deepening, with the UN warning of the growing risk of famine. Its main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, said early on Saturday that Palestinians were “in extreme peril while the world watches on”. AFP footage showed distraught Palestinians queueing for food in the territory’s devastated north on Friday and staging a protest decrying their living conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that “without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase”. “Humanitarians need unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid,” said Ocha, to “avert the threat of mass starvation”.
Ocha also highlighted reports from the charity Save the Children who said families are forced to “forage for scraps or food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive”. In its latest update, AFP said a man at the Jabalia refugee camp was so desperate for food to feed his family that he slaughtered two of his horses.
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a significant oil leak, the US military said on Saturday. The vessel suffered significant damage, which caused an 18 mile (29 km) oil slick, said US Central Command (Centcom).
British MPs have said they are fearful of violent attacks as tensions over the war in Gaza had increased threats. Some Labour MPs who have been vocal on Israel and Palestine said they were fearful there could be a violent attack on a politician. While the vast majority of people make their views on the conflict known peacefully, MPs and staff said the politically charged atmosphere had brought an increase in abuse and threats.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has defended the right to lobby UK MPs “in large numbers”, amid reports the group wanted so many protesters to turn up that parliament would “have to lock the doors”. According to the Press Association (PA), the group said the issue of MPs’ security was “serious” but should not be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.
Updated
Two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a Gaza City hospital, says health ministry
On Friday, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said a two-month-old baby died of malnutrition in a hospital in Gaza City, just over four miles (7km) away from Jabalia.
The World Food Programme this week said its teams reported “unprecedented levels of desperation” while the UN warned that 2.2 million people were on the brink of famine.
News agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports a desperate situation for food in northern Gaza. In its latest update, AFP said a man at the Jabalia refugee camp was so desperate for food to feed his family that he slaughtered two of his horses.
“We had no other choice but to slaughter the horses to feed the children. Hunger is killing us,” Abu Gibril told AFP.
Gibril, 60, fled to the Jabalia refugee camp from nearby Beit Hanun when the conflict erupted. Home for him and his family is now a tent near what was a UN-run school.
Contaminated water, power cuts and overcrowding were already a problem in the densely populated camp, which was set up in 1948 and covers just half a square mile (1.4 square kilometres). Now food is running out, with aid agencies unable to get in to the area because of the bombing – and the frenzied looting of the few trucks that try to get through.
According to AFP, one man told its reporters that a kilo of rice, for example, has shot up from seven shekels ($1.90) to 55 shekels. “We the grownups can still make it but these children who are four and five years old, what did they do wrong to sleep hungry and wake up hungry?” he said angrily.
The UN children’s agency Unicef has warned that the alarming lack of food, surging malnutrition and disease could lead to an “explosion” in child deaths in Gaza. One in six children aged under two in Gaza was acutely malnourished, it estimated on 19 February.
AFP report that people have taken to eating scavenged scraps of rotten corn, animal fodder unfit for human consumption and even leaves to try to stave off the growing hunger pangs.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
Updated
Brazil's president accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, doubling down after earlier uproar
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alleged on Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on harsh rhetoric after stirring controversy a week earlier by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, reports AP.
Israel has vehemently pushed back against genocide claims, saying its war is targeting the militant group Hamas, not the Palestinian people. It has held Hamas responsible for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.
Lula wrote on X that he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood”, an apparent reference to calls for him to retract his comments. “What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” he wrote Saturday. “Children and women are being murdered.”
In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology. In retaliation, Lula recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Israel for consultations.
Last month, South Africa filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. The court issued a preliminary order in the landmark case two weeks later, ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has defended the right to lobby UK MPs “in large numbers”, amid reports the group wanted so many protesters to turn up that parliament would “have to lock the doors”.
According to the Press Association (PA), the group said the issue of MPs’ security was “serious” but should not be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said thousands of people were “shamefully” denied entry into parliament on Wednesday as they attempted to lobby MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza.
He added that the group was not involved in the projection of a controversial pro-Palestinian message, “from the river to the sea”, on the building but was “pleased to see it”. “Between the river and the sea” is a fragment from a slogan used since the 1960s by a variety of people with a host of purposes. And it is open to an array of interpretations, from the genocidal to the democratic. You can read more about it in this Guardian explainer.
The Times reported that Jamal told a crowd of demonstrators in the buildup to the protest on Wednesday: “We want so many of you to come that they will have to lock the doors of parliament itself.” According to a video obtained by the newspaper, he also urged pro-Palestine protesters to “ramp-up pressure” on MPs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons who has faced calls to resign after going against convention during the Scottish National party’s (SNP) opposition day debate on a ceasefire, said his motivation for widening Wednesday’s discussion was fuelled by concern about MPs’ security because of intimidation suffered by some parliamentarians.
In a statement, Jamal said:
This week over 80,000 people emailed their MPs ahead of the ceasefire debate. More than 3,000 came from across the UK to lobby their MPs in person, in one of the largest physical lobbies of parliament in history.
Shamefully, most were denied entry, ending up queueing for over four hours in the rain as extraordinary measures were introduced to limit the number who could meet their MPs face to face.
We are aware of reports that MPs’ safety was put to the speaker as a rationale as to why he should violate normal Commons procedures to allow the Labour amendment to be heard.
The issue of MPs’ security is serious but cannot be used to shield MPs from democratic accountability.”
Jamal added: “The idea that calling for people to lobby parliament in large numbers is a threat to MPs or inspires fear in them is grotesque and undermines a basic principle of democratic government, that members of the public have a right to attend parliament and ask to meet with their MPs face to face to articulate their concerns on any issue.”
He said the group “does not call” for protests outside MPs’ homes and believed parliamentarians have a right “to have their privacy respected”.
The government’s political violence tsar has said police should have the powers to “disperse” protests around parliament, MPs’ offices and council chambers that they deem to be threatening.
Baron Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said on Friday that the “aggressive intimidation of MPs” by “mobs” was being mistaken for an “expression of democracy”.
The crossbench peer, who in December submitted a government-commissioned review into how actions by political groups can “cross into criminality and disruption to people’s lives”, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was calling for police forces to act “uniformly in stopping” protest outside MPs’ homes.
Updated
Ruth Michaelson and Faisal Ali have worked on this piece about one Rafah family’s attempt to find safety. You can read more here:
The view from the window of the Almodallals’ kitchen in Rafah is nothing but rubble. Piles of debris that used to be their neighbours’ homes surround them in the al-Zuhour neighbourhood, gaping holes ripped through what remains of the walls, leaving only mounds of broken glass and concrete that crack in the silent air when people tread on them.
“We were targeted three times: To the right of our house, the left, and behind it. Now we joke that we’re next,” said Shahed Almodallal, a 21-year-old student who has spent the last four months living at her family home in Rafah, unable to return to her apartment or her university in Gaza City after both were destroyed in Israel’s bombardment of the territory.
“You feel the change living in this neighbourhood, we used to be able to hear the sounds of other people. Now in every direction there’s rubble and traces of dead bodies,” she said.
Her mother, Naima, often refuses to look out the window, appalled by the destruction, and the family have taken to sleeping at a relative’s house in fear of more strikes.
Blinken calls new Israeli settlements inconsistent with international law
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank was inconsistent with international law, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday, signaling a return to longstanding US policy on the issue, which had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.
The Trump administration in 2019 in effect backed Israel’s right to build West Bank settlements by abandoning a long-held US position that they were “inconsistent with international law”.
Speaking at a news conference during a trip to Buenos Aires, Blinken said the US was disappointed in Israel’s announcement of plans for building new housing in the occupied West Bank, saying they were counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace.
“They’re also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment this only weakens, doesn’t strengthen Israel’s security,” Blinken said.
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a significant oil leak, the US military said on Saturday, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on 18 February while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, US Central Command (Centcom) said.
On Feb. 18 between 9:30 p.m. and 10:40 p.m., Iran-backed Houthi terrorists attacked the M/V Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier. The ship is anchored but slowly taking on water. The unprovoked and reckless attack by Iran-backed Houthi terrorists caused significant… pic.twitter.com/bU6j850wwG
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 24, 2024
The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertiliser, Centcom said in a statement.
The vessel suffered significant damage, which caused an 18 mile (29 km) oil slick, said the Centcom statement, warning that the ship’s cargo “could spill into the Red Sea and worsen this environmental disaster.”
“The Houthis continue to demonstrate disregard for the regional impact of their indiscriminate attacks, threatening the fishing industry, coastal communities, and imports of food supplies,” it said.
Separately, Centcom said it launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.
It described the strikes as “self-defence,” saying that the missiles “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and to the US Navy ships in the region.”
Centcom didn’t give further details. Houthi-run media, however, reported strikes by the US and the UK on the district of Durayhimi in the Red Sea province of Hodeida.
Updated
Ocha calls for 'unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid' to 'avert the threat of mass starvation' in Gaza
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that “without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase”.
“Humanitarians need unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid,” said Ocha, to “avert the threat of mass starvation”.
In a post on X, Ocha wrote:
Famine is looming, water is down to a trickle, diseases are rampant, the health system is decimated, and other basic supplies and services are severely limited.”
In its latest flash update on the situation in Gaza, Ocha highlighted reports from the charity Save the Children who said families are forced to “forage for scraps or food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive”. Ocha said: “Catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity are reportedly intensifying across Gaza.”
Without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in #Gaza is projected to increase.
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) February 23, 2024
To avert the threat of mass starvation, humanitarians need safe, unfettered access for an urgent scale-up of aid. Learn more 👇
Updated
92 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 92 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed and 69,737 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
British MPs fearful of violent attacks as tensions over Gaza war increase threats
MPs have spoken about the lengths they are going to to keep safe amid heightened tensions over the war in the Middle East.
Some Labour MPs who have been vocal on Israel and Palestine said they were fearful there could be a violent attack on a politician.
While the vast majority of people make their views on the conflict known peacefully, MPs and staff said the politically charged atmosphere had brought an increase in abuse and threats.
Tan Dhesi, the Labour MP for Slough, said he felt his life was at risk. He has been subject to death threats and faced protests at his office and constituency surgeries since October. He said Thames Valley police had located the individual behind one death threat and charged them.
“Everyone has a legitimate right to protest, but it’s the vitriol and the abuse and death threats which are completely unacceptable,” Dhesi said. “Some people are looking to blame somebody – their MP, councillor, anyone.”
Updated
New hopes of Gaza ceasefire as Israeli negotiators head to Paris
An Israeli negotiating team arrived in Paris on Friday for talks about a potential ceasefire in Gaza in the latest sign of tentative progress towards an agreement that could end the five-month-old war.
The Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, will meet the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official for talks over the weekend in what appears to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting.
Pressure on Hamas and Israel to conclude a deal is mounting. There are widespread concerns among observers that an imminent Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza will cause further extensive civilian casualties and that the start of Ramadan in less than three weeks could ignite widespread unrest in the occupied West Bank and exacerbate risks of a regional conflagration.
Israel says Hamas has four battalions of militants in or around Rafah and that its offensive will go ahead if no ceasefire deal is reached soon. Washington has called on its close ally not to launch an assault on a city packed with more than 1 million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza.
Israeli strikes reportedly kill scores in Gaza as ceasefire talks under way in Paris
More than 100 people were reported killed early on Saturday in overnight strikes across Gaza, as Israel’s spy chief was in Paris for talks seeking to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Paris negotiations come after a plan for a postwar Gaza unveiled by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, drew criticism from key ally the US and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
The talks also come as fears for civilians in the territory are deepening, with the UN warning of the growing risk of famine and its main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, saying early on Saturday that Palestinians were “in extreme peril while the world watches on”.
AFP footage showed distraught Palestinians queueing for food in the territory’s devastated north on Friday and staging a protest decrying their living conditions.
“Look, we are fighting each other over rice,” said Ahmad Atef Safi in Jabalia.
Where are we supposed to go?
“We have no water, no flour and we are very tired because of hunger,” said fellow Jabalia resident Oum Wajdi Salha. “Our backs and eyes hurt because of fire and smoke.
We can’t stand on our feet because of hunger and lack of food.
In a statement on X on Friday night, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said: “Without adequate food and water supplies, as well as health and nutrition services, the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase.”
Opening summary
It has gone 10.30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and this is our latest Guardian live blog covering the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis.
More than 100 people were reported killed early on Saturday in overnight strikes across Gaza, as Israel’s spy chief was in Paris for talks seeking to “unblock” progress towards a truce and the return of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by the Israeli prime minister drew criticism from key ally the US and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
US forces shot down three Houthi attack drones near commercial ships in the Red Sea on Friday and destroyed seven anti-ship cruise missiles positioned on land, the US military said. Attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis targeting shipping have persisted despite repeated US and UK strikes. A day earlier, US forces struck four Houthi drones and two anti-ship cruise missiles, the US military said.
Under Benjamin Netanyahu’s “day after” plan for Gaza – his first official proposal for when the war in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory ends – Israel would maintain security control over all land west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza, territories where the Palestinians want to create an independent state. In the long-term goals listed, the Israeli prime minister rejected the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state, while for the medium term he outlined demilitarisation and deradicalisation in Gaza as goals.
Netanyahu also called for shutting down the UN Palestinian refugees agency (UNRWA) and replacing it with other international aid groups in his “day after” plan, which was presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday and seen by Reuters on Friday.
The spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said Netanyahu’s “day after” proposal was doomed to fail, as were any Israeli plans to change the geographic and demographic realities in Gaza. “If the world is genuinely interested in having security and stability in the region, it must end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and recognise an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
UN experts warned on Friday that any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza was likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately. “State officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide,” the experts said. They also noted that arms transfers to Hamas and other armed groups are also prohibited by international law.
Hamas said on Friday that its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had left Egypt after holding talks with Egyptian officials about a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Two Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel would head on Friday to Paris for the talks with the Israelis, after wrapping up talks with Haniyeh on Thursday.
Israel’s army said on Friday a Palestinian militant on his way to carry out a shooting attack was killed in a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin a day earlier. Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the “terrorist organisation’s military activities”, the army said. Palestinian news agency Wafa said two people were killed and four others wounded in the strike. AFP footage showed a car severely burned from the hit.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Friday that one of its paramedics, Fayez As’ad Mohammad Muammar, had been killed after his family’s house was bombed in the eastern part of Rafah.
A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups. According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence report, released last week, assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of staff had participated in the attack, indicating that it considered the accusations to be credible though it could not independently confirm their veracity.
The paramedics arm of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says two of its members were killed in an Israeli strike on a southern border village early on Friday. The Islamic Health Society identified the two as Hussein Khalil and Mohammed Ismail, saying they were killed when the group’s office in the village of Blida was directly hit, a day after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Rumman killed two members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah later said it retaliated the attack on Blida by launching two explosive drones at an Israeli army post in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, claiming it scored direct hits.
