Closing summary
Negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan. Hamas negotiators stayed in Cairo for a third day of ceasefire talks on Tuesday after two days yielded no breakthrough. Two days of talks between Hamas and international mediators broke up in the Egyptian capital without any significant breakthroughs, Palestinian officials said, after Israel declined to send a delegation to the latest round of negotiations. But leaders from Hamas were reportedly expected to hold more talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators over the prospects of reaching a ceasefire deal.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the continuing tension with Hezbollah militants at the border with Lebanon was moving the situation nearer to a military escalation, Reuters reported. “We are committed to the diplomatic process, however Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” he said in a statement after a meeting with US special envoy Amos Hochstein.
NBC News has been told by US officials that Kamala Harris’ speech on Sunday, in which the US vice-president called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept a deal to release hostages in return for a six-week cessation of hostilities, was watered down by officials at the national security council.
At least 30,631 Palestinians have been killed and 72,043 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 97 Palestinian people were killed and 123 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Children are dying of starvation in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said. In a post on X, he said the organisation’s visits over the weekend to the al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, in northern Gaza, were the first since early October, and produced “grim findings”. The WHO chief described severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation and serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies at the health facilities. Adding to concerns about the widespread malnutrition in the enclave, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said on Tuesday that “the situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza”. He said that 1 in 6 children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza. “With children starting … to die from starvation, that should be an alarm like no other,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva, separately.
Discussions about how humanitarian aid could enter Gaza without Israeli permisson are to be discussed at an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic cooperation in Jeddah on Tuesday.
The OIC comprises 75 Muslim member states and Turkey and Iran intend to use the meeting to press a tougher practical line with Israel than the Gulf States. Some consumer boycotts have damaged US firms in the Middle East such as Starbucks, but many countries have been continuing to trade with Israel despite accusing the country of genocide.
Ahead of the meeting, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kan’ani had described the meeting as a test for the OIC. “This cruel war continues in the shadow of warmongering by the Zionist regime’s officials and the unlimited support of the United States. The OIC is facing a test tomorrow to show how much of its capacity it will use in support of Palestine.” Iran’s foreign minister, Amir Abdullahian, has in the past pressed the OIC to mount sanctions and boycotts of Israel.
Foreign ministers of the OIC last met five months ago to discuss the crisis while leaders met four months ago. Iran argues the 20 point plan agreed by the leaders has led to no effective pressure on Israel, and despite fiery rhetoric some Gulf states continue to trade with Israel, and export energy to a country they denounce as genocidal.
Speaking on Sunday, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, hinted that Turkey could send humanitarian aid to Gaza without seeking Israeli permission.
Citing his conversations with his foreign counterparts on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum over the weekend, Fidan said some countries were advocating to act unilaterally, departing from the established practice of seeking Israeli permission in aid dispatches.
“We also support this view,” he said. “Delivering aid to Gaza while waiting for someone now means being complicit in the slow and silent deaths of more than 2 million people,” he added.
The Turkish Red Crescent delivered more than 3,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks, and is sending another 3,000 tonnes by ship shortly to Egypt.
Fidan did not name the countries that are considering by-passing Israel but such a unilateral action if it involved land convoys would require a green light from Egypt, or Jordan. Egyptian officials held talks on Monday with Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s under-secretary-general and senior coordinator for humanitarian affairs and reconstruction in Gaza.
Humanitarian aid to Gaza is now being delivered via the Rafah crossing linking the Palestinian enclave and Egypt, and at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
On Tuesday, the Jordanian Armed Forces carried out 8 joint airdrops, the largest since the start of the air operations.
The Jordanian army said the operations included three C130 aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian air force, three American aircraft, an Egyptian aircraft, and a French aircraft.
Jordan says it has now conducted 28 airdrop missions including 15 in conjunction with others.
In a policy switch, the US swung behind emergency air aid drops last week, but critics say the amount of aid that can be delivered by air is strictly limited. The head of US AID agency Samantha Power has stressed aid airdrops are not a substitute but a supplement to a larger number of trucks entering Gaza.
Jordan says it is not required to coordinate with Israel over the contents of its aid drops.
Israeli aid authorities said on 3 March the number of aid trucks entering Gaza reached a record with 277 trucks inspected and transferred to Gaza, the largest number since the start of the war.
The discussions about aid at the OIC alos came as the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for talks.
Before the 7 October attacks, Erdogan had hosted a rare meeting between Abbas and Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh in a bid to create unity between the two factions, but the Gaza war brought this diplomacy to a halt.
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