It is approaching 5.30pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu again stated on Wednesday Israel’s intention to launch a ground offensive against Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, but cautioned that it will “take some time” for Israel’s forces to be ready. In a video statement Netanyahu said that he will soon approve a plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from fighting areas after having green-lit the military’s operational plans for Rafah.
Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians in Gaza to flee to Rafah for their safety, and there is now a huge displaced population living there in makeshift tents. An airstrike on Rafah on Wednesday killed more Palestinians, with the Hamas-led ministry of health saying that the number of people killed in Israel’s military assault has nearly reached 32,000.
Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan said on Wednesday that the Israeli response to the group’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over. In a press conference in Beirut he claimed that Israel had retracted previous negotiation approvals in the latest talks.
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said it was vital for a pause in fighting to allow for the release of hostages, but that Israel has to “get Hamas leaders out of Gaza”. Earlier on Wednesday Cameron had said his country continues to “push Israel to allow more crossings to open and for longer, and for healthcare, water and sanitation to be restored.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived on Wednesday in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for talks. His sixth visit to the region since 7 October will also include Egypt, and he is expected in Israel on Friday.
In an operational update on Wednesday Israel’s military claimed to have killed “approximately 90 terrorists” and to have “questioned over 300 suspects” at the al-Shifa hospital medical complex in Gaza. It said “an additional 160 suspects have been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning”. Israeli troops entered the hospital on Monday. It also claimed to have found weapons stored at the hospital. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office, said that all those killed at the al-Shifa hospital complex by Israeli forces had been wounded patients and displaced persons inside the hospital. Neither sets of claims has been independently verified.
A delegation of US and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it has recorded over 400 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 12 March 2024.
Demonstrators in Jeruslam gathered Wednesday outside an Unrwa office calling for the UN agency that works with Paelstinian refugees to be disbanded. Israeli authorities have claimed that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 Gaza staff members were directly involved in the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel which killed about 1,140 people. Another protest on Wednesday in Tel Aviv blocked a highway as friends and families of those being held hostage in Gaza called for their release.
Trade unionists and anti-weapons campaigners have staged protests outside two UK factories on Wednesday – one in Edinburgh and one in Cheltenham – in the latest UK demonstrations calling for an end to British arms sales to Israel.
A French Navy helicopter destroyed a Houthi combat drone in the southern Red Sea to protect merchant ships, the EU’s mission in the Red Sea, known as Aspides, said on Wednesday.
Israel’s high court has passed an Israeli request to demolish the home of Israeli-occupied West Bank resident Khaled Abed Alfatah Almukhtasab. In October he seriously injured an Israeli police officer in a shooting in occupied East Jerusalem. It will be the first time Isreali authorities demolish the house of a Palestinian whose attack caused no fatalities.
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he does not support a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.
We are closing this live blog for today. You can find all of our latest coverage on the Israel-Gaza war here.
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he does not support a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.
Speaking to Reuters, he told it Israel was a “moral nation” that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza.
Asked if he supported a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Kennedy told Reuters: “I don’t even know what that means right now.”
Kennedy said that each previous ceasefire “has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time?” he said.
Recent polling has suggested Kennedy is backed by 15% of registered voters in the US, nowhere near enough to attain the presidency, but in a position where he could take votes from incumbent Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Earlier this week Trump said that Jewish people who voted for the Democratic party “hated Israel” and “hated their religion”.
Hamas official: Israel retracted previous negotiation approvals in latest talks
Reuters is now carrying a fuller quote from senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who told a press conference in Beirut that Israel had rejected its proposals for a ceasefire.
The news agency quotes him saying:
On Tuesday evening, our brothers, the mediators, informed us of the occupation’s position on the proposal. It is a negative response in general and does not respond to the demands. In fact, it retracts the approvals it previously provided to the mediators.
Netanyahu: preparations for ground assault on Rafah will 'take some time'
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again stated Israel’s intention to launch a ground offensive against Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, but cautioned that it will “take some time” for Israel’s forces to be ready.
Reuters reports Netanyahu said that he will soon approve a plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from fighting areas after having green-lit the military’s operational plans for Rafah.
Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians in Gaza to flee to Rafah for their safety, and there is now a huge displaced population living there in makeshift tents. An airstrike on Rafah today killed more Palestinians, with the Hamas-led ministry of health saying that the number of people killed in Israel’s military assault has nearly reached 32,000.
Haaretz reports that in his statement, Netanyahu said Israel’s military continues to operate in Khan Younis. He added “We continue to eliminate and capture senior Hamas officials as we just did in al-Shifa Hospital, eliminating many hundreds of terrorists.”
Earlier Israel claimed it had killed about 90 fighters at the al-Shifa hospital complex. Hamas has denied using it as a base, and said those killed were civilians, patients and medical staff. Neither sets of claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Video footage obtained by Al Jazeera in Rafah and shared on social media shows the extent of damage caused by an Israeli airstrike there earlier today.
دمار كبير لحق بمنزل عائلة فلسطينية في حي الجنينة برفح إثر غارة جوية إسرائيلية خلفت شهداء وجرحى#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/DjXLvekUqA
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) March 20, 2024
Hamas says Israeli response to truce proposal negative
Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan said on Wednesday that the Israeli response to the group’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over, Reuters reports.
Head of the Mossad David Barnea had been on Doha earlier in the week for talks, and representatives of Israel had stayed there in order to continue negotiations.
Earlier today the UK foreign secretary David Cameron said it was “vital” to get a pause in fighting in order to secure the release of hostages being held in Gaza, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken is visiting Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with a planned stop in Israel on Friday to make a further push for a ceasefire.
Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel is understood to be taking place on Friday. Images of Blinken arriving today in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have appeared on the news wires in the last few minutes.
France claims to have destroyed Houthi drone near commercial vessels in Red Sea
A French Navy helicopter destroyed a Houthi combat drone in the southern Red Sea to protect merchant ships, the EU’s mission in the Red Sea, known as Aspides, said on Wednesday.
Reuters reports that according to a statement from Aspides’ headquarters in the Greek town of Larisa, a French destroyer warship detected an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying near commercial vessels, and the warship’s helicopter, “patrolling in the area, was guided by the destroyer to engage and destroy the drone with its machine gun.”
Israel has continued to bombard the southern and central Gaza Strip, including Rafah, where many displaced Palestinians have fled the five months of military assault. Here are some of the latest images from the news wires.
Blinken expected to add Israel to countries visited on Middle East tour
Reuters reports an Israeli government official said on Wednesday that US secretary of state Antony Blinken was expected in Israel “end of week” on his tour of the Middle East.
Blinken returned to the region on Wednesday for his sixth visit since the 7 October Hamas assault inside southern Israel, to push for a ceasefire deal and the release of hostages held by in Gaza. It was known that he would be visiting Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
In the UK, the BBC’s most senior figure, director-general Tim Davie, has described social media remarks about the Israel-Gaza war by some of the corporation’s journalists as “unacceptable”, PA Media reports.
However, he told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday that the BBC remains “impartial”. His comments came after culture secretary Lucy Frazer recently said she believes the broadcaster is biased “on occasion”.
When asked about retweets by BBC Arabic staff that Conservative MP Damian Green dubbed “essentially pro-Hamas”, Davies replied:
Some of those tweets that we’ve seen are unacceptable, and we have taken action and we’ll continue to take action; whether I can convince you that it will never happen again … of course not.
We are robust and I think we’re doing the fair thing, we’re acting fairly and judiciously and it’s not easy.
I mean, you’re seeing it around the world, every news organisation, every cultural institution as you know is under enormous pressure … this is enormously fraught.”
A small number of BBC Arabic journalists had been criticised for allegedly liking posts comparing Hamas to “freedom fighters” after the 7 October attacks while others have been criticised for calling or endorsing posts calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocidal” and the country a “terrorist apartheid state”.
Davie said “social media activity with regard to this issue” has led to many BBC staff facing “threats” and has caused some to leave.
In Gaza City there has been a funeral for 23 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a gathering of people at the Kuwait Roundabout. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the gathering was to facilitate the transportation of aid.
Near the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus today relatives have buried Fakher Bani Jaber, who was shot by an Israeli settler on Tuesday.
The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority has condemned the killing, reports the Wafa news agency, with a statement blaming Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s policy of making gun distribution to Israeli citizens easier. It described the killing as a “heinous crime”.
According to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, since 7 October, 420 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or Israeli settlers inside the occupied West Bank. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address US Republican senators via video linkup to their weekly policy lunch on Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the plan, days after the Senate’s Democratic leader gave a speech harshly criticising him as an obstacle to peace.
The plan underscored the politicisation of Washington’s Israel policy, in which the Israeli leader has been aligned with Republicans.
In his speech last week, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, long a supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish US elected official, told the Senate that Netanyahu’s government “no longer fits the needs of Israel” and urged for new elections in the country to take place.
Republicans in turn harshly criticised Schumer. Netanyahu told CNN on Sunday that Schumer’s speech was inappropriate.
Netanyahu’s plan to address the weekly Republican policy lunch was first reported by the political news outlet Punchbowl.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 2pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said it was vital for a pause in fighting to allow for the release of hostages, but that Israel has to “get Hamas leaders out of Gaza”. Earlier Cameron had said his country continues to “push Israel to allow more crossings to open and for longer, and for healthcare, water and sanitation to be restored.”
In its latest operational update Israel’s military has claimed to have killed “approximately 90 terrorists” and to have “questioned over 300 suspects” at the al-Shifa hospital medical complex in Gaza. It says “an additional 160 suspects have been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning”. Israeli troops entered the hospital on Monday. It also claims to have found weapons stored at the hospital. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office, has said that all of those killed at the al-Shifa hospital complex by Israeli forces had been wounded patients and displaced persons inside the hospital. Neither sets of claims has been independently verified.
Mourners held funeral prayers Wednesday morning outside a hospital in central Gaza for 28 people killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on urban refugee camps. Nineteen people, including five women and nine children, were killed when a strike flattened a family home late Tuesday in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Another person was killed in a separate strike in the camp. A strike in the nearby Bureij camp killed eight people, including three women.
Demonstrators in Jeruslam have gathered outside an Unrwa office calling for the UN agency that works with Paelstinian refugees to be disbanded. Israeli authorities have claimed that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 Gaza staff members were directly involved in the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel which killed about 1,140 people. Another protest in Tel Aviv blocked a highway as friends and families of those being held hostage in Gaza called for their release.
Trade unionists and anti-weapons campaigners have staged protests outside two factories – one in Edinburgh and one in Cheltenham – in the latest UK demonstrations calling for an end to British arms sales to Israel.
A delegation of US and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it has recorded over 400 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 12 March 2024.
Israel’s high court has passed an Israeli request to demolish the home of Israeli-occupied West Bank resident Khaled Abed Alfatah Almukhtasab. In October he seriously injured an Israeli police officer in a shooting in occupied East Jerusalem. It will be the first time Isreali authorities demolish the house of a Palestinian whose attack caused no fatalities.
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has announced that he will hold a ceremony to honour three Israeli hostages that were killed by Israel’s military inside the Gaza Strip.
A statement from his office said:
In light of the extraordinary circumstances of the event, the president decided to honor the determination, fortitude and special bravery they demonstrated and to award their families a unique certificate of appreciation in the name of the state of Israel.
Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa were abducted from two kibbutzim inside southern Israel on 7 October during the Hamas attack that killed about 1,140 people.
After being held hostage, they were killed in December in the Gaza City area of Shejaiya by Israeli troops who shot them after identifying them as a threat during fighting.
Reuters reports that Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office, has said that all of those killed at the al-Shifa hospital complex by Israeli forces had been wounded patients and displaced persons inside the hospital.
“The Israeli occupation army practices lying and deception in spreading its narrative as part of justifying its continuous and law-breaking crimes, which violate international law, international humanitarian law,” he said.
Israel’s military earlier said that it had killed approximately 90 fighters and had interrogated 300 suspects at the al-Shifa hospital since it entered the complex on Monday. It also claims to have found weapons stored at the hospital. [See 8.07 GMT]
Neither sets of claims has been independently verified.
A delegation of American and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes.
The doctors, who have recently returned from volunteering at Gaza’s besieged hospitals, are expected to meet White House officials and senior members of Congress this week to warn that pledges of increased aid to Palestinians under bombardment are largely meaningless without an immediate ceasefire to allow safe distribution of food and the revival of healthcare services.
Professor Nick Maynard, the former director for cancer services at Oxford University who worked at the al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza at the beginning of the year, accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of “appalling atrocities”.
“The IDF are systematically targeting healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel and really dismantling the whole healthcare system,” he said.
“It’s not just about targeting the buildings, it’s about systematically destroying the infrastructure of the hospitals. Destroying the oxygen tanks at the al-Shifa hospital, deliberately destroying the CT scanners and making it much more difficult to rebuild that infrastructure. If it was just targeting Hamas militants, why are they deliberately destroying the infrastructure of these institutions?”
Read more here: US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza
Writing in Haaretz, Alon Pinkas has criticised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a lack of planning for what happens in Gaza after the war. He writes:
At this point in time, over five months into the war, Benjamin Netanyahu is clueless in terms of the war’s attainable objectives but resolute and consistent about one thing: saying no to everything, marinating himself in righteous indignation, accusing everyone, from President Biden, to the IDF and a hostile world of failing him when in effect, he failed himself miserably.
If the war’s only objective was destroying Hamas, a worthy and justified objective, than Israel should have articulated a clear postwar vision. It didn’t. Netanyahu has rejected and derided any idea pertaining to postwar Gaza, he has refused to engage with the US in a dialogue over the governance in Gaza and the power vacuum and chaos that are inevitably forming.
When you choose neither approach, propose no silver lining and think that bombing is strategy you end up with international isolation and fervent anti-Israeli sentiment.
Cameron: vital to get pause in fighting but Israel has to 'get Hamas leaders out of Gaza'
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has spoken again about Israel and Gaza while on a trip to Thailand. He said it was vital for a pause in fighting to allow for the release of hostages, but that Israel has to “get Hamas leaders out of Gaza”.
Reuters reports he told the media:
Crucially what we must try to do is to turn that pause into a permanent sustainable ceasefire. We will only do that if a whole lot of conditions are fulfilled. We’ve got to get Hamas leaders out of Gaza, we have to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.
Cameron was visiting a Thai air force base.
In the UK, PA Media reports that trade unionists and anti-weapons campaigners have staged protests outside two factories – one in Edinburgh and one in Cheltenham – in the latest demonstrations calling for an end to arms sales to Israel.
The protesters called on the UK Government to halt arms supplies to Israel before any ground offensive in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Organisers said Wednesday’s demonstrations will form part of a month of disruptive direct action in support of Palestine.
One person at the event told reporters “Israel is on the brink of invading the very area they told the people of Gaza it was safe for them to flee to. Such atrocities could not take place without the political and military support of governments like Britain.
“We’re taking action to stop the flow of arms from Britain to Israel before it launches an illegal assault on Rafah which the UN has made clear will cause catastrophic levels of death and destruction, and plunge Gaza into famine.”
WHO documents over 400 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza since 7 October
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published an infographic illustrating attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza it has recorded between 7 October 2023 and 12 March 2024. It says:
Since 7 October, WHO has documented 410 attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip. Attacks have resulted in 685 fatalities, 902 injuries, damage to 99 facilities and affected 104 ambulances. Two-fifths (38%) of attacks were in Gaza City, a quarter (23%) in North Gaza, and over a quarter (28%) in Khan Younis. Health care is #NotATarget. WHO calls for the respect of international law and active protection of civilians and health care.
Since 7 October, WHO has documented 410 attacks on health care in the #Gaza Strip.
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) March 20, 2024
Attacks have resulted in 685 fatalities, 902 injuries, damage to 99 facilities and affected 104 ambulances.
Two-fifths (38%) of attacks were in Gaza City, a quarter (23%) in North Gaza, and over… pic.twitter.com/ZIYBy6tMX2
Earlier we reported that Israel’s representative at the UN, Meirav Eilon Shahar, has written to WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, about Israel’s recent military action at al-Shifa hospital. [See 9.21 GMT]
Haaretz reports that Israel’s high court has passed an Israeli request to demolish the home of Israeli-occupied West Bank resident Khaled Abed Alfatah Almukhtasab. In October he seriously injured an Israeli police officer in a shooting in occupied East Jerusalem.
Chen Maanit writes for the paper that “this will be the first time Isreali authorities demolish the house of a Palestinian attacker whose attack caused no fatalities.”
Also on the news wires are the latest pictures from inside Gaza, and the scenes at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah, where the bodies of Palestinians killed by overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Nusairat refugee camp have been taken.
Here are some more pictures of that protest outside Unrwa offices in Jerusalem, where Israelis appear to have unloaded some fake body bags outside the office, while some are displaying signs which say “Disband Unrwa” and “Unrwa = Hamas”.
Israeli authorities have claimed that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 Gaza staff members were directly involved in the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel which killed about 1,140 people.
As well as the protest in Tel Aviv [see 8.19 GMT] by families and friends of hostages being held in Gaza, there is a protest in Jerusalem outside Unrwa offices calling for their release.
Yesterday my colleague Jason Burke, who is in Jerusalem, had this report on documents which reveal an alleged pattern of Israeli harassment of Unrwa workers in the occupied West Bank.
Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian has shared some pictures which purport to show suspects that the IDF has rounded up, detained and blindfolded in the vicinity of the al-Shifa hospital overnight.
Photos circulating on social media show IDF troops detaining suspected Hamas operatives at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital overnight.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2024
The IDF says it has taken 160 suspects from the hospital to Israel for further questioning. Yesterday, the IDF said that among the suspects are… https://t.co/RwHTBDObNs pic.twitter.com/pv1SmurWQI
The Guardian has not independently verified the images.
Israel’s representative at the UN, Meirav Eilon Shahar, has published a letter she has sent to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, in which she sets out details of Israel’s military operation at the al-Shifa hospital medical complex.
In the letter, she claims the operation is “based on concrete intelligence indicating the renewed use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists”, and says that “I would like to make it very clear that Israel did not issue any obligation for the patients and medical staff to evacuate the site. During the operation, terrorists have opened fire at IDF troops from within the hospital, and the IDF has responded.”
She claims that “Terror funds intended for distribution to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives, in addition to numerous weapons, were also located in the hospital. In two rooms adjacent to the office of the director of the hospital, grenades, mortar shells and bullets were found.”
She continues:
The evidence uncovered, as well as undeniable proof of Hamas terrorists sheltering in the hospital compound, displays once again Hamas’ systematic abuse of hospitals and civilian infrastructure for its terrorist activities.
Health facilities should never be compromised or exploited. In Gaza, hospitals are used to coordinate terrorist activities, to store weapons arsenals, or as headquarters for terrorist organizations.
International law is clear, these protected sites can lose their protection if they are being used outside their humanitarian function, to commit acts harmful to the other side.
The claims have not been independently verified. Hamas has denied using hospitals as bases.
The letter concludes:
I would … expect you to demand that Hamas cease the abhorrent use of innocent Palestinians as human shields. Israel will continue to act in accordance with international law in Gaza. We will do everything in our power to avoid harming the civilian population. Meanwhile, the International Community must cease to stand aside while Hamas cynically and systematically abuses civilian infrastructure and healthcare facilities.
Yesterday, I sent a letter to @DrTedros updating him about the operation in Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
— Meirav Eilon Shahar 🇮🇱 (@MeiravEShahar) March 20, 2024
Hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were found hiding in the hospital including senior officials. During searches, the @IDF also discovered caches of weapons, grenades… pic.twitter.com/NZqZdu2jc0
Unicef has published a video during which spokesperson James Elder has visited what remains of the Nasser hospital medical complex in Gaza after five months of Israeli bombardment and the ground offensive there.
Visibly emotional, during the video Elder says:
The last time I was in this hospital there were thousands of people taking shelter there. I mean, look at this place. Sorry, I need a minute.
Medical staff would do 36 hour shifts. These incredible people, running, giving incredible care, to every single child with the wounds of war who needed it. Extraordinary medical staff.
To see so many children hurt, burned, bandages around their tiny arms and legs, their families bent over them, in anguish and hope, as the doctors and nurses, they whizzed around these corridors, and like superheroes doing everything they possibly could to save children.
To now. To this. This solemn silence of death in these corridors. A place where no doctor can fulfill their oath to care, and no child can receive medical care.
Updated
Activists and families of Israeli hostages who are believed still held in Gaza have staged a protest in Tel Aviv, once again blocking a highway while calling for the return of their loved ones.
About 134 people are still believed by Israeli authorities to be held by Hamas and other groups inside Gaza after being seized and abducted from inside Israel on 7 October. Not all of the hostages are believed to still be alive.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, has told the news network that there have been more deaths at the Kuwaiti roundabout during aid distribution. He writes:
Another aid tragedy took place in the early hours of last night at the Kuwait Roundabout. Twenty-four people were killed and we were told there are still more injured people on the roads. The attack destroyed not only the aid trucks and the people gathering but also the vicinity, including public facilities.
This is not the first time we have seen deliberate and direct attacks on humanitarian aid trucks and people gathering in large groups around them, given the fact that famine is spreading widely in northern part of Gaza.
More details soon …
Israel claims it has killed 90 fighters and interrogated 300 suspects at al-Shifa hospital
In its latest operational update Israel’s military has claimed to have killed “approximately 90 terrorists” and to have “questioned over 300 suspects” at the al-Shifa hospital medical complex in Gaza. It says “an additional 160 suspects have been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning.”
The IDF describes what it calls “precise operational activity” at the medical centre. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses the hospital as a base, which Hamas has denied.
In the update the IDF claims:
IDF and ISA forces are continuing to conduct a precise operation against terrorists in the area of the Shifa hospital. Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment.
Thus far, the troops have killed approximately 90 terrorists in the area, the IDF and ISA have questioned over 300 suspects at the compound, and an additional 160 suspects have been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Palestinian witnesses have described large explosions and firefights taking place in the vicinity of the hospital, where many people, displaced by Israel’s ground offensive and repeated bombardment of Gaza, have been taking shelter.
On Monday one of those detained during the raid on the medical centre was an Al Jazeera journalist, who claims that he was held for 12 hours and severely beaten by Israeli forces.
In the rest of its update, the IDF claimed that on Tuesday “a launch was identified from northern Gaza toward the city of Sderot, which fell in the Gaza Strip. In response, an IAF aircraft struck an operational Hamas terror shaft in the area of the launch.”
Our First Edition newsletter today sees Archie Bland talking to Jason Burke about the relationship between Israel and Unrwa, the UN refugee agency for Palestinians. Here is an excerpt:
The hundreds of claims in the UN documents reviewed by the Guardian present a bleak picture of Unrwa’s ability to do its work in the West Bank.
They range from allegations of UN staff being beaten and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers to an incident in which an Unrwa health centre was allegedly commandeered by Israeli security forces so they could fire on suspected militants. Six Palestinians, including a 14-year-old, died during that raid. The documents are also heavily critical of how militants fighting the Israelis from the camps are putting civilians and UN staff at risk.
“The Israeli officials I spoke to clearly draw a line between Unrwa in Gaza and in the West Bank,” Jason Burke said. “They were sincere about viewing the work in the West Bank as important. But at the same time, you clearly have others in Israel who take a very different attitude to Unrwa as an institution overall. Some politicians do not make the same distinction.”
“Unrwa is the only actor with sufficient scale to provide anywhere near the support that the population in Gaza needs,” Jason said. He spoke yesterday to Unrwa’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, who gave the example of the aid being sent to Gaza by maritime corridor: “He pointed out that food is going into Unrwa warehouses, for distribution by Unrwa staff. Without that infrastructure, it would be much harder to get it to people who need it.”
While Israel has long been hostile to Unrwa, the claims against the agency since 7 October have been particularly serious. “It’s very difficult to think of another instance where a major UN agency with decades of work behind it has come under so much pressure,” Jason said.
You can read more here: Wednesday briefing: What you need to know about Israel’s dispute with Unrwa
Cameron: UK continues to 'push Israel to allow more crossings to be open' into Gaza for aid delivery
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said his country continues to “push Israel to allow more crossings to open and for longer, and for healthcare, water and sanitation to be restored.”
The statement came as the UK said it had provided food for 275,000 people. 1.1 million people have been described as experiencing “catastrophic” food shortages, with a UN-backed report on Monday stating that famine was “imminent” in northern Gaza.
Cameron, the former UK prime minister, said:
It’s crucial that we keep the flow of aid moving into Gaza to end the suffering, and that’s why this latest delivery of aid by the World Food Programme (WFP) is so vitally important. The IPC’s report warns of imminent famine. We need sustained humanitarian access by road to get more aid in. We continue to push Israel to allow more crossings to open and for longer, and for healthcare, water and sanitation to be restored.
The UK Foreign Office said more than 2,000 tonnes of food aid funded by the UK had crossed the border and was being distributed by the WFP.
Speaking in the Australian parliament, Labor MP Graham Perrett has said people in Gaza are “suffering on a scale that is unimaginable” and that his country, along with others, has called for Israel to observe the international court of justice ruling “that it must take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza”. Perrett says people are living with “daily bombings, deaths and starvation, mainly because of Israel’s refusal to let enough food’ into the Palestinian territory”.
Overnight the IDF appears to have confirmed that Yemen’s Houthis fired a cruise missile at Israel. In a statement it said:
Following the incident on Sunday night regarding a suspicious aerial target that fell north of the city of Eilat, a cruise missile approached the area from the direction of the Red Sea and fell in open terrain. The target was monitored by IAF troops throughout the incident. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused. The incident is under review.
Yesterday the Houthis claimed to have targeted Eilat, which is Israel southern port city.
At least 28 killed in three separate overnight Israeli airstrikes on refugee camps
Mourners held funeral prayers Wednesday morning outside a hospital in central Gaza for 28 people killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on urban refugee camps.
Video footage showed mourners praying over the bodies, which were wrapped in funeral shrouds, before the bodies were taken away in donkey carts for burial.
Nineteen people, including five women and nine children, were killed when a strike flattened a family home late Tuesday in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Another person was killed in a separate strike in the camp. A strike in the nearby Bureij camp killed eight people, including three women.
The dead were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ hospital, the main medical facility in central Gaza. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies and their names in hospital records.
Nuseirat and Bureij are among several dense, built-up refugee camps in Gaza that date back to 1948, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the war surrounding its creation, in what is called the Nakba in Arabic.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due to return to the Middle East on Wednesday, in a new bid to secure a truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
After a failed attempt to secure a ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a new round of negotiations hosted by key mediator Qatar has begun.
Blinken was due in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and Egypt on Thursday. He had earlier this week said everyone in Gaza was now suffering “severe levels of acute food insecurity”.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he remains determined to carry out a ground invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah – where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering – despite the misgivings of US president Joe Biden. Netanyahu told lawmakers on Tuesday he had made it “supremely clear” to the US president “that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah”.
Israeli restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza may amount to the war crime of deliberate starvation, the UN has said. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid may amount to “starvation as a method of war”.
UN staff working with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been subjected to a systematic campaign of obstruction and harassment by the Israeli military and authorities since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza five months ago, according to internal UN documents obtained by the Guardian.
Canada will halt future arms sales to Israel after a non-binding vote in the house of commons. The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, told the Toronto Star her government would halt future arms shipments. The decision follows a parliamentary motion, introduced by the New Democratic party, that called on the governing Liberals to halt future arms exports to Israel.
Qatar has said it remains cautiously optimistic about the Gaza ceasefire talks, but warned that an Israeli operation in Rafah would result in major destruction and “atrocities” that have yet to be seen in the conflict. The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, has left Doha and returned to Israel after talks, but has left a team behind to continue discussions. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said it was too early to talk of any breakthrough.
Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip. The former property dealer, married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 8 March.
Syria’s defence ministry said Israel launched missiles at military targets outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday. Syrian sources said the attacks were strikes on fortifications of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
