Closing summary
Egypt was in contact with senior Hamas and Israeli figures as well as other mediators on Sunday in an effort to restart negotiations for a truce in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan, which begins on Monday or Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Egypt’s contacts with Hamas and Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, on Sunday were reportedly carried out under a mandate from the Egyptian presidency in a bid to bring the two sides’ divergent positions together.
A ship carrying tonnes of food for Gaza remained docked in a Cyprus port on Sunday as preparations were under way to launch a yet untested maritime aid route to the enclave. The Open Arms, a salvage vessel, plans to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food on. Packing the cargo was completed on Saturday evening, but a source told Reuters that the departure was partly dependent on creating a makeshift jetty in Gaza to facilitate deliveries since the strip has no port infrastructure. Israel’s war in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said on Sunday that hunger is “everywhere” in Gaza and described the situation in the north of the enclave as “tragic”, saying that aid via land is “denied despite repeated calls”.
The US and Jordan carried out a new airdrop of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, parachuting in more than 11,500 meals, the US military said. The American military’s central command said that the latest airdrop took place over northern Gaza and included rice, flour, pasta, and canned food.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before killed five people in southern Lebanon, including three of the group’s members. Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of Meron, eight kilometres (five miles) from the border.
At least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed and 72,654 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Updated
Egypt in touch with Hamas and Israel to restart ceasefire talks - report
Egypt was in contact with senior Hamas and Israeli figures as well as other mediators on Sunday in an effort to restart negotiations for a truce in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan, which begins on Monday or Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Egypt’s contacts with Hamas and Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, on Sunday were carried out under a mandate from the Egyptian presidency in an effort to bring the two sides’ divergent positions together, the sources said.
Qatar, Egypt and the US have been trying to negotiate a deal for a ceasefire during Ramadan in return for the release of Israel hostages captured in Hamas’ 7 October attacks. The latest round of talks, not attended by Israel, broke up in Cairo this week.
Israel has previously demanded that Hamas present a list of 40 elderly, sick and female hostages who would be the first to be released as part of a truce.
Hamas has reiterated its position that all Israeli forces leave Gaza, large-scale humanitarian aid should be allowed in, and that Palestinians displaced from their homes in the north of the coastal territory be allowed to return.
Ship carrying food for Gaza remains docked in Cyprus as preparations continue for new maritime aid route
A ship carrying tonnes of food for Gaza remained docked in a Cyprus port on Sunday as preparations were under way to launch a yet untested maritime aid route to the enclave, where the UN estimates a quarter of the population faces starvation.
The Open Arms, a salvage vessel, plans to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food on, mostly funded by the UAE (see earlier post at 11.12).
The supplies were sourced by charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), which is working with Spanish non-governmental organisation Proactiva Open Arms.
WCK said it has another 500 tonnes of supplies in Cyprus, which will be dispatched in future missions.
However, the timing on the departure for the aid was unclear. Packing the cargo was completed on Saturday evening, but a source told Reuters that the departure was partly dependent on creating a makeshift jetty in Gaza to facilitate deliveries since the strip has no port infrastructure.
Updated
The Palestinian foreign ministry has welcomed the decision by Canada and Sweden to reinstate funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), calling it “a necessary step to secure a lifeline for Palestine refugees”.
They were among countries that suspended aid to UNRWA after Israel accused about 12 of its employees of involvement in the 7 October Hamas attacks, in which Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mainly civilians, and abducted another 250 in southern Israel.
In a post on X, the Palestinian foreign ministry wrote that:
The decision affirms the indispensability of UNRWA for ensuring the wellbeing, protection and basic rights of millions of Palestine refugees and providing regional and international stability. It is also a testament to the impartiality, humanity and neutrality of UNRWA.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates// welcomes the decision by Canada and Sweden to re-instate funding for #UNRWA.
— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) March 10, 2024
الخارجية والمغتربين// ترحب بقرار كندا والسويد بإعادة تمويل وكالة الأمم المتحدة لإغاثة وتشغيل اللاجئين الفلسطينيين (الأونروا). @SweMFA @CanadaFP… pic.twitter.com/Ra9P28jZw3
UNRWA is at the centre of efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, where the UN has warned repeatedly of looming famine after months of Israeli bombardment.
UNRWA employs about 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria – with about 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip.
Updated
US and Jordan carry out airdrop of humanitarian aid in Gaza, says US military
The US and Jordan carried out a new airdrop of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, parachuting in more than 11,500 meals, the US military said.
Israel’s war in Gaza, which is supported by the US, has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine.
The American military’s central command said that the latest airdrop took place over northern Gaza and included rice, flour, pasta, and canned food. The US has dropped about 135,000 meals in airdrops this month, according to Pentagon data.
The US president, Joe Biden, has also ordered the US military to build a temporary port system to bring aid into Gaza by sea.
The Pentagon said on Friday it could take up to 60 days to be up and running, a timeline that aid groups say is too long given the imminent risk of famine.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Israelis and Palestinians are bracing themselves for a tense and potentially violent week, with no sign of a ceasefire likely in Gaza and calls from Hamas for protest marches around the Islamic world to mark the start of Ramadan on Monday.
Earlier this month, a halt to hostilities before the Muslim holy month looked possible, but hopes have dimmed since indirect talks in Cairo ended without progress last week.
On Friday, President Joe Biden said a deal between Hamas and Israel was now “looking tough”, and when asked if he was worried about violence in Jerusalem, said, “I sure am.”
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s international security correspondent, Jason Burke, here:
Updated
Dutch King Willem-Alexander officially opened the country’s first Holocaust Museum on Sunday, as demonstrators opposing Israel’s war in Gaza protested against the Israeli president, who also addressed the ceremony.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said the museum sent “a clear and powerful statement: remember, remember the horrors born of hatred, antisemitism and racism and never again allow them to flourish”.
“Unfortunately never again is now, right now. Because right now, hatred and antisemitism are flourishing worldwide and we must fight it together,” the president said.
He called for the “immediate and safe return” of hostages taken by Hamas in the 7 October attacks and urged the congregation to “pray for peace”.
Less than one kilometre away were protests against Herzog’s appearance at the ceremonies, organised by, among others, Jewish groups urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Hundreds gathered waving Palestinian flags and banners, and shouting “Never Again Is Now”, a reference to their belief Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory. Many reportedly booed and shouted slogans as the dignitaries arrived at the museum.
Updated
The Israeli army is deploying 24 battalions, 20 MGB companies and two special units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 5,000 reservists already stationed in the Palestinian territories, Al Jazeera has cited the Israeli army radio as saying.
It also said that a total of more than 15,000 soldiers will operate in the area.
Updated
Israeli authorities have stopped issuing new visas or renewing old ones for foreign employees of international NGOs, most of whom occupy senior positions, according to three senior humanitarian officials and a body representing more than 80 groups.
As of Thursday, 57 aid workers’ visas had expired since the war broke out on 7 October, while 42 more “will expire in the coming few weeks”, said Faris Arouri, director of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), whose members work in the Palestinian territories.
At least 50 requests for new visas – for staffers ramping up the response to worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank – have gone nowhere, Arouri said.
“The total is close to 150 positions that we urgently need as of two months ago, not tomorrow,” Arouri said.
“We see it as part and parcel of a larger-scale Israeli blockade on aid operations and humanitarian aid both in the West Bank and Gaza.”
The United Nations has also been affected, with scores of visa applications currently “unanswered”, a UN official told AFP, requesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told AFP there was “a change of procedures … regarding the issuing of visas to the NGOs” and that the issue “will be resolved in the near future”.
Thousands of police have been deployed around the narrow streets of the Old City in Jerusalem, where tens of thousands of worshippers are expected every day at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of the holiest sites in Islam.
Reuters reports:
The area, considered the most sacred place by Jews who know it as Temple Mount, has been a longstanding flashpoint for trouble and was one of the starting points of the last war in 2021 between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
That 10-day conflict has been dwarfed by the current war, which is now in its sixth month. It began on 7 October when thousands of Hamas fighters stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, by Israeli tallies.
Israel’s relentless campaign in Gaza has drawn increasing alarm across the world as the growing risk of famine threatens to add to a death toll that has already passed 31,000.
After some confusion last month when hard-right security minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he wanted restrictions on worshippers at Al Aqsa, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the numbers admitted would be similar to last year.
“This is our mosque and we must take care of it,” said Azzam Al-Khatib, director general of the Jerusalem Waqf, the religious foundation that oversees Al Aqsa. “We must protect the presence of Muslims at this mosque, who should be able to enter in big numbers peacefully and safely.”
Reuters has spoken to Palestinians in the southern Gaza City of Rafah, which has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million.
“We made no preparations to welcome Ramadan (which will begin on Monday or Tuesday this week) because we have been fasting for five months now,” said Maha, a mother-of-five.
“There is no food, we only have some canned food and rice, most of the food items are being sold for imaginary high prices,” she said via chat app from Rafah, where she is sheltering with her family.
Updated
A Spanish charity ship carrying food aid was expected to soon set sail from Cyprus to help alleviate the suffering in the Gaza Strip.
The non-governmental group Open Arms said its boat would carry 200 tonnes of food, which its partner the US charity World Central Kitchen would then unload on the shores of Gaza where it had constructed a basic dock, according to AFP.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that hunger is “everywhere” in Gaza and described the situation in the north of the enclave as “tragic”.
The agency is calling for humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip and an immediate ceasefire.
Hunger is everywhere in #Gaza 📍
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 10, 2024
The situation in the north is tragic, where aid via land is denied despite repeated calls. Ramadan is approaching. The death toll continues to rise.
Humanitarian access across the #GazaStrip & an immediate ceasefire are imperative to save lives. pic.twitter.com/mgdgxqDeJu
The Israeli offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory, already reeling from a 17-year Israel-led blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of it has been reduced to rubble and most of the 2.3 million population have been displaced, with the UN warning of disease and starvation.
Aid agencies’ efforts to deliver humanitarian aid have been severely hampered by a combination of logistic obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel.
Now under intense international pressure, Israel recently signalled it would open new entry points to allow aid to reach northern Gaza. However, officials in Jerusalem continue to blame hunger in Gaza on failures by humanitarian organisations and on Hamas, which they accuse of diverting aid.
Updated
Hezbollah fires rockets into Israel after deadly strikes in Lebanon
Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before killed five people in southern Lebanon, including three of the group’s members.
Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of Meron, eight kilometres (five miles) from the border, AFP reports.
Meron is home to a major air control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the start of the year.
Hezbollah said it had acted “in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians”, particularly the targeting of the home of a fighter in Kherbet Selm the day before.
A woman and another person were also killed in the same strike, according to Lebanon’s official National news agency.
“Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted,” the Israeli army said on Sunday.
The statement added that the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah infrastructure during the night, including a “military structure in which Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of Khirbet Selm”.
Hezbollah has indicated it will cease fire if Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip stops, describing its campaign as aimed at supporting Palestinians in Gaza.
Updated
Asem al-Nabeh, a member of the Gaza Municipality’s emergency committee, told Al Jazeera that Israel has destroyed one million square metres of roads in Gaza City.
“Municipalities need machinery, heavy equipment and fuel,” he said, adding that the city has accumulated 70,000 tonnes of waste.
Nabih also said that while food aid that has arrived is important, it does not meet the needs of citizens. Groundwater reserves in Gaza are also in danger, he added.
“The per capita share of water in the Gaza municipality is now two litres per day,” he said.
A statement letter from 189 UK-based scholars, most of whom are fellows of the British Academy, has expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, including academics, students and researchers.
The signatories of the letter say they are “shocked and saddened” at the “immense” loss of civilian life and called the demolition of all the higher education institutions in the Gaza Strip a “clear violation” of international and humanitarian law.
The statement reads:
We, the undersigned, are shocked and saddened by the immense loss of life of civilians, including researchers and academics, and the demolition of all the institutions of higher education in the Gaza Strip, which is a clear violation of humanitarian and international law.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and its community of students and researchers, experiencing this attack on their basic rights to survival. We send our support and friendship at this time to all academics, researchers and students in the Gaza Strip and occupied Palestinian territories for whom the safety to learn, teach and research is no longer guaranteed.
We send our support and friendship also to those academics and researchers in Israel who have resolutely argued that Israel’s future security lies in working towards a two-state solution rather than in continued violence.
We will continue to stand up for academic freedom and acknowledge the courage that many are showing in speaking out against this military activity which is harming students and educators alike.
Updated
There are growing fears among diplomats in the US and Europe that Iran’s largely unmonitored nuclear programme and the destabilisation caused by Israel’s war in Gaza are strengthening the hand of Iranian factions that back the development of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has reiterated in recent days that his country is pursuing a civilian nuclear programme for now.
However, at a quarterly meeting last week of the governing board of the nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US and its European partners issued dire warnings about the threat posed by Iran’s lack of cooperation on its nuclear programme.
The IAEA director, Rafael Grossi, even admitted that that the inspectorate had lost “continuity of knowledge about the production and stock of centrifuges, rotors, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate” in Iran.
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here:
Updated
Death toll in Gaza reaches 31,045, says health ministry
At least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed and 72,654 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
The X account for the Municipality of Gaza warns that Gaza is facing a “humanitarian crisis” due to “relentless Israeli aggression”, with essential services such as water and sanitation significantly affected.
It called for international aid in supplying fuel for basic services, electricity generators for water wells and heavy machinery for infrastructure repair and waste management.
Urgent Ramadan Appeal from Gaza 👇#بلدية_غزة#حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/hwRE7U6M1H
— بلدية غزة - Municipality Of Gaza (@munigaza) March 10, 2024
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said the US president, Joe Biden, wants to see a plan to evacuate Palestinians before a major Israeli military offensive in Rafah.
“We evacuated more than a million Palestinians from north to south and now we have to move them west and to other areas before the Rafah operation,” he said in remarks quoted by Israeli public radio.
As Israeli forces have expanded ground operations steadily southwards in the war, Rafah – situated on the border with Egypt, and before the conflict home to about 280,000 people – has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million.
Updated
Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel more than helping’ it
US president Joe Biden has said that he believes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his approach to the war against Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview on Saturday, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, but said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.
Biden said of the death toll in Gaza, “it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
“It is a red line,” he said, when asked about Rafah, “but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 have been injured in Israeli strikes on the enclave since 7 October.
Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and wider Middle East crisis.
US president Joe Biden has said that he believes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his approach to the war in Gaza.
In an interview on Saturday with MSNBC, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, but said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.
Biden has for months warned that Israel risks losing international support over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza. His remarks on Saturday pointed to the increasingly strained relationship between the two leaders.
In other developments:
A ship laden with humanitarian aid intended for Gaza is preparing to leave Cyprus, amid acute international concern as conditions in the territory continue to deteriorate. A US charity said it was loading aid on to a boat in Cyprus, which will be the first shipment to Gaza along a maritime corridor the European Commission hopes will open by Sunday.
On Sunday, the US announced that a vessel – the Gen Frank S. Besson – had departed from a Virginia base en route to the eastern Mediterranean to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. In its statement, the US central command said the Besson, a logistics support vessel, departed “less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the US would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea”, adding that it was “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies”.
Efforts to secure a deal on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are continuing, according to a statement by Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, on Saturday. The Mossad chief, David Barnea, met on Friday with his US counterpart, CIA director William Burns, to promote a deal to release the hostages, the Mossad said in a statement distributed by Netanyahu’s office. Biden said it was “looking tough” to secure a ceasefire in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In a statement on Saturday marking Ramadan, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh vowed the Palestinians would continue to fight Israel “until they regain freedom and independence”.
Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at the northern al-Shifa hospital overnight, the Gaza health ministry on Saturday said. Its spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said this raised to 23 the number of Palestinians who had died of similar causes in nearly 10 days.
The Israeli military said it conducted arrests, located weapons and killed more than 30 fighters in Khan Younis, including in the Hamad area, in central Gaza and in the area of Beit Hanoun in the north, according to a statement on Saturday summarising its operations in Gaza over the past day.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that at least 82 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the last day, and the total number of deaths had risen to 30,960.
In Khan Younis, medics said at least 23 people were killed in military raids on homes and in Israeli shelling of a housing project in the Hamad area of the city. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli fire killed a Palestinian fisher along the beach, medics said.
Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on early Saturday. The 12-floor building, located about 500 metres from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the strike. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The IDF said it had warned residents of the 12-floor Al-Masry Tower ahead of the strike, and said they all evacuated in time. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that “scores of civilians sustained various injuries”.
Canada and Sweden confirmed that they will restore funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). According to CBC News, Canada’s international development minister Ahmed Hussen confirmed the move at a press conference on Friday, while the Swedish government announced on Saturday that it would resume suspended payments with a grant of 200m crowns ($20m/£16m).
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Ankara “firmly backs” the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said in a speech in Istanbul. “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”
Hundreds of thousands of Pro-Palestinian activists marched through London calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, during a National Day of Action for Palestine on Saturday. The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), made its way from Hyde Park Corner to the US embassy in Nine Elms.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general told Swiss broadcaster RTS that the UN Palestinian refugee agency is at the “risk of death” after Israel alleged some of its staff took part in the 7 October Hamas attack. But, he said he was “cautiously optimistic” that “a number of donors will return” over the next few weeks and after an independent review of UNRWA is due to be published next month.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90bn (£70bn). He made the comment during a speech marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day in Egypt on Saturday.
