Here’s how things stand on Thursday, February 29, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people in the Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza overnight, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
- Two hospitals in northern Gaza have no fuel to run generators as they treat children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.
- The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Ahmed al-Kahlout, told Al Jazeera Arabic that seven children died on Wednesday at the hospital due to malnutrition.
- The Ministry of Health in Gaza has also reported that two children have died of dehydration and malnutrition at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
- The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 30,000, with 76 people killed between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, bringing the death toll to 29,954, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in the UK, as politicians face abuse for airing their views on Israel’s war on Gaza, leaving some fearing for their safety.
- Meanwhile, in the European Parliament, a Swedish member has spent most of her allotted speaking time at an EU parliamentary session in silence to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.
- Canada’s international development minister Ahmed Hussen has said that the country is exploring options for delivering humanitarian aid, and “airdrops of aid into Gaza, in partnership with like-minded countries like Jordan”, were possible.
- New Zealand on Thursday listed Palestinian group Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist entity and imposed travel bans on “extremist” Israeli settlers whom it said had committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
- In the Middle East, Israel’s military has released video footage purporting to show recent attacks by jet fighters on targets in southern Lebanon’s Kafra and Siddikine areas.
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In Syria, air defences intercepted Israeli strikes in the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, state media said on Wednesday. Syrian state media gave no further details about the attacks or the intended targets.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man during their storming of the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.
- Israeli forces have conducted raids elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, including in the following locations: The town of Arraba and the village of Jalbun in Jenin governorate, the town of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem city, the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya city, the city of Hebron and the town of Bani Naim, east of Hebron.
