Closing summary
It has just gone 6pm in Rafah, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 7pm in Damascus. The Middle East crisis blog will be closing shortly but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
A food shipment for 1.1 million Palestinians is stuck at an Israeli port due to recent restrictions from Israeli authorities, says the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as an estimated 25% of families in Gaza face catastrophic hunger. UNRWA’s director Philippe Lazzarini, said on Friday that a convoy of food donated by Turkey had been sitting for weeks in the Israeli port city of Ashdod. The agency said that the Israeli contractor they work with received a call from Israeli customs authorities “ordering them not to process any UNRWA goods”.
The World Food Program warned on Friday that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May.
Israel’s plans for a military offensive on Rafah in the Gaza Strip are “alarming”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said. Josep Borell said that “reports of an Israeli military offensive on Rafah are alarming”.
Children are going without food for days and some people are resorting to grinding animal feed into flour to survive, reports the BBC who spoke to people living in north Gaza. People also described digging down into the soil to access water pipes, for drinking and washing. International charity ActionAid has said that food is becoming so scarce in Gaza that people are resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry,” the charity said, while the UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that almost one in 10 of Gazan children under five are now acutely malnourished.
Airstrikes on the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah have killed at least 28 people. Each strike killed multiple members of three families, including 10 children, the youngest just three months old, said Associated Press (AP).
An Egyptian official told the Guardian that under no circumstances would fleeing Palestinians be allowed to cross the border into the Sinai peninsula, and any attempt to relocate them to Egyptian soil would collapse the peace deal between Egypt and Israel. The population of Rafah has swelled to more than 1.5 million people – roughly three-quarters of Gaza’s population – as people flee fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said.
Hamas on Saturday warned that there could be “tens of thousands” of dead and injured if the Israeli military attacked Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip. In a statement Hamas said that any military action would have catastrophic repercussion. AFP said witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early Saturday, raising fears among Palestinians of a looming ground invasion.
“People in hospitals should always feel safe” said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic as he journalists in Geneva on Friday that more than 350 attacks have taken place against healthcare in Gaza since hostilities erupted. A total of 645 people have died since 7 October and another 818 were injured as a result of these incidents said Jasarevic, with his comments coming amid allegations that a nurse was shot and critically injured while inside an operating theatre at a hospital in Khan Younis.
A senior Hamas official survived an assassination attempt in Lebanon by an alleged Israeli strike, a Palestinian security source told AFP. Another source told Reuters that the person targeted was close to Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas deputy chief killed last month in a suspected Israeli strike on a suburb of Beirut. Sources said a Hezbollah member and two civilians were killed by the strike in the coastal town of Jadra, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Saturday said that at least 117 people were killed in overnight bombardment, including more than 20 in strikes in Rafah. It also said 152 were injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that three children were killed in a strike in Rafah. The PCRS also said that Israeli forces raided al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s biggest city, on Friday after a weeks-long siege during which the PRCS reported “intense artillery shelling and heavy gunfire”.
The PRCS accused Israeli forces of the ‘deliberate targeting’ of a PRCS ambulance that resulted in the death of two of its medics, Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun.
The Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said neither Iran nor Lebanon had sought to expand hostilities in the region. “Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution, and that we absolutely never sought to expand it,” he told a press conference alongside his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut on Saturday. Amir-Abdollahian has held meetings in Lebanon with Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, regional groups, including Hezbollah and various Palestinian groups.
“Israel’s declared ground offensive on Rafah would be catastrophic and must not proceed,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. “There is no place that is safe in Gaza and no way for people to leave.”
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister said “the people of Gaza cannot disappear into thin air”, as she warned that an Israeli offensive on Rafah would be “a humanitarian catastrophe”.
Israel’s army has deployed artificial intelligence-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, raising fears about the use of autonomous weapons in modern warfare.
Hezbollah said on Saturday it had seized an Israeli Skylark drone over Lebanese airspace “in good condition”. The Skylark is a small, unmanned aerial vehicle typically used for surveillance and produced by Israel-based weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Yemen’s Houthi militia held a funeral on Saturday for at least 17 militants killed during joint US-UK airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militants.
At least 364 attacks on healthcare have happened in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, resulting in 10 fatalities and 62 injuries, said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic on Friday. He noted that 44 health facilities had been affected, including 15 mobile clinics and 24 ambulances.
The Saudi foreign ministry cautioned against the “extremely dangerous repercussions” of Israel “storming and targeting” the city of Rafah. It said “this continued violation of international law and international humanitarian law” confirmed the necessity of convening the UN security council urgently “to prevent Israel from causing an imminent humanitarian catastrophe”.
Israeli occupation forces continued their siege of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis for the 20th day and reached its northern gate, reports Al Jazeera. “The occupation forces have been besieging us for 20 days and we are suffering from a shortage of food and drink,” Nahidh Abu Tamiyya, the head of the surgical department told an Al Jazeera correspondent.
Two Palestinians have been killed by an Israeli sniper – one in front of the Nasser medical complex reception gate, and the other in the emergency department, according to Wafa news agency. It said that medical teams cannot move between the complex’s buildings due to the snipers, and that the lives of 300 health personnel, 450 patients and wounded, and 10,000 displaced people inside the Nasser medical complex are threatened.
A six-year-old Palestinian girl who went missing after the family’s car came under fire in Gaza has been found dead, the Hamas-run health ministry and her relatives said, accusing Israel of killing her. The last time Hind Rajab had been seen was about two weeks ago when she was surrounded by dead relatives after becoming trapped in the vehicle as they tried to flee Gaza City as Israeli forces advanced. The PPRCS had frequently posted updates on its X account pleading for updates and information on Rajab.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarinisaid he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks. Lazzarini said he did not probe Israel’s claims against the employees before dismissing them and launching an investigation.
Three people were killed in on Israeli airstrikes that targeted a building in an upmarket area near Damascus on early Saturday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the SOHR said three people were killed in the airstrikes but could not immediately confirm whether the dead were fighters. He added that many other people were injured in the strikes on a neighbourhood hosting “villas for top military and officials.”
Iran’s football federation said on Saturday it had asked world football’s governing body, Fifa, to suspend Israel’s football federation over the country’s war in Gaza.
Updated
Yemen’s Houthi militia held a funeral on Saturday for at least 17 militants killed during joint US-UK airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militants, reports Reuters citing the Houthi-run Saba news agency.
The Houthis have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial ships since 19 November in what they say is a response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, prompting the UK and the US to start retaliatory strikes last month.
“These crimes will not discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support and backing of their brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Saba said in its coverage of the funerals.
Besides the airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the US and the UK have returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups as turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war spreads through the region.
The Houthi campaign has disrupted international shipping, causing some companies to suspend transits through the Red Sea and instead take the much longer, costlier journey around Africa.
The Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday neither Iran nor Lebanon had sought to expand hostilities in the region, four months after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel set off a series of flare-ups across the Middle East.
“Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution, and that we absolutely never sought to expand it,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told a press conference alongside his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut, reports Reuters.
Updated
Israeli strike in Lebanon was 'a failed attempt to assassinate a senior Hamas official' - reports
News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) have shared further details on the Israeli strike in Lebanon.
A Palestinian security source told AFP that a senior Hamas official had survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, with rescuers reporting two civilians killed in the strike south of Beirut. A security source told Reuters that a member of the powerful, Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah had also been killed.
Another source told Reuters that the senior Hamas official targeted was close to Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas deputy chief killed last month in a suspected Israeli strike on a suburb of Beirut.
Israeli forces and Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily fire since war broke out on 7 October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. But the Israel-Lebanon violence has been largely contained to the border area, and Saturday’s strike was the second-farthest deadly attack from the frontier in four months of hostilities.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli forces struck a car in the coastal town of Jadra, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border.
The Palestinian source, requesting anonymity for security concerns, said the strike “was a failed attempt to assassinate a senior official in the [Hamas] movement”.
An official with the Lebanese Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, told AFP that two civilians had been killed. The official identified them as a vegetable vendor and a Syrian man on a motorbike who both happened to be nearby.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw a damaged car and a charred motorcycle nearby, with bloodstains all over the site of the strike near the beach in Jadra.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Updated
Also my colleague, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan has written a news story on the dozens killed in Rafah airstrikes as a full-scale Israeli ground offensive looms. You can read the full piece here:
Airstrikes on the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah have killed at least 28 people as more than a million civilians sheltering in the area brace for the possibility of a full-scale Israeli ground offensive on the territory’s last place of relative safety.
As Israeli forces have expanded ground operations steadily southwards in their war against Hamas over the past four months, Rafah – situated on the border with Egypt, and home before the war to about 280,000 people – has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and defence ministry to draw up plans for troops to enter Rafah and evacuate civilians, leading to widespread panic in the overcrowded makeshift tent camps that now cover the area.
With two-thirds of Gaza already under evacuation orders, widespread destruction throughout the coastal strip and continuing fighting, it is unclear to where such a large number of people could safely be moved. An Egyptian official told the Guardian that under no circumstances would fleeing Palestinians be allowed to cross the border into the Sinai peninsula, and any attempt to relocate them to Egyptian soil would collapse the peace deal between Egypt and Israel.
Updated
My colleague, Emine Sinmaz in Jerusalem has shared the following report on the case of six-year-old Hind Rajab who was found dead on Saturday, 12 days after her cry for help:
“I’m so scared, please come,” were some of the last words six-year-old Hind Rajab said in a telephone call to rescuers after her family’s car came under fire in Gaza City.
Trapped in the vehicle and surrounded by her dead relatives, for three hours she pleaded with the Red Crescent to save her.
But the aid agency lost contact with the ambulance dispatched to her aid on 29 January and its crew and Hind remained missing.
Now Hind’s family has said that she was found dead inside the car in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City on Saturday morning.
“Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred,” her grandfather, Baha Hamada, told Agence France-Presse. “[Family members] were able to reach the area because Israeli forces withdrew early at dawn today.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) added that it had located its bombed-out ambulance just metres away, and that its two paramedics, Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, had also been killed.
Updated
Food shipment for 1.1 million Palestinians stuck at port due to restrictions from Israeli authorities, says UNRWA
A food shipment for 1.1 million Palestinians is stuck at an Israeli port due to recent restrictions from Israeli authorities, says the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as an estimated 25% of families in Gaza face catastrophic hunger.
The Associated Press (AP) report that UNRWA’s director, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Friday that a convoy of food donated by Turkey had been sitting for weeks in the Israeli port city of Ashdod. The agency said that the Israeli contractor they work with received a call from Israeli customs authorities “ordering them not to process any UNRWA goods”.
📍#Gaza A food shipment for 1.1 million people is stuck at Israeli port due to recent restrictions from Israeli authorities.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 10, 2024
1,049 containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar & cooking oil are stuck as families in #Gaza face hunger & starvation ⬇️ @AP https://t.co/NaCSwDdqET
The restrictions deepened a crisis between Israel and UNRWA, whose operations have been threatened following Israeli accusations that some of its workers participated in the 7 October Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s war in Gaza. Those accusations have led major donor nations, including the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, to suspend funding to the UN organisation.
In an update to its X account, UNRWA said “1,049 containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar and cooking oil are stuck as families in Gaza face hunger and starvation”. That is enough to feed 1.1 million people for one month, say AP.
The World Food Program warned on Friday that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May.
Updated
'The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air', says German foreign minister
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister said the “need in Rafah is already unbelievable”, warning that an Israeli offensive on Rafah would be “a humanitarian catastrophe”.
In an update on her X account, Baerbock said: “The people of Gaza cannot disappear into thin air.”
Die Not in #Rafah ist schon jetzt unfassbar. 1,3 Mio. Menschen suchen dort auf engsten Raum Schutz vor den Kämpfen. Eine Offensive der israelischen Armee auf Rafah wäre eine humanitäre Katastrophe mit Ansage. Die Menschen in #Gaza können sich nicht in Luft auflösen. 1/2
— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) February 10, 2024
She added: “Israel must defend itself against Hamas terror, but at the same time alleviate the suffering of the civilian population as much as possible. That’s why another ceasefire is needed so that the hostages can finally be released.”
Baerbock said she would discuss “the way” to a ceasefire “next week in Israel”.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed faction Hezbollah said on Saturday it had seized an Israeli Skylark drone over Lebanese air space “in good condition”.
The Skylark is a small, unmanned aerial vehicle typically used for surveillance and produced by Israel-based weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, Reuters reported.
PRCS accuse Israeli forces of ‘deliberate targeting’ of an ambulance that resulted in death of two medics
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have accused Israeli forces of the ‘deliberate targeting’ of a PRCS ambulance that resulted in the death of two of its medics.
In a post to its X account, the PRCS shared a video showing the remains of a PRCS ambulance, that the humanitarian organisation says was destroyed deliberately by Israeli occupation forces.
The PRCS said two of its colleagues, Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, were just meters away from six-year-old Hind Rajab. The last time Hind Rajab had been seen was about two weeks ago when she was surrounded by dead relatives after becoming trapped in the vehicle as they tried to flee Gaza City as Israeli forces advanced.
The PRCS had frequently posted updates on its X account pleading for updates and information on Rajab. The BBC had also highlighted her story.
“Hind tragically lost her life alone after pleading with our teams for hours in a terrified and desperate voice, ‘Come take me.’ Rest in peace, Hind, and to the heroes of humanitarian work, Yusuf and Ahmed,” said the PRCS.
In this video, horrifying scenes show the deliberate targeting by the Israeli occupation of the PRCS ambulance, resulting in the killing of our colleagues Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, who were just meters away from the child Hind. Hind tragically lost her life alone after… pic.twitter.com/PJiI6vtBei
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 10, 2024
117 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 117 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 152 were injured in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 28,064 Palestinians have been killed and 67,611 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Hezbollah fighter killed and Palestinian figure close to Hamas targeted in Israeli strike on Lebanon
An Israeli strike about 60km inside Lebanon’s southern border on Saturday targeted a Palestinian figure close to Hamas but he survived, four security sources told Reuters.
Three other people were killed, including one Hezbollah fighter, the security sources said.
The strike was much deeper into Lebanese territory than the usual exchanges of fire between Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli military, which have been mostly limited to the border region. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
A Palestinian figure close to Hamas has survived an Israeli strike about 60km inside Lebanese territory, reports Reuters. The strike has killed at least three others, four security sources told the news agency.
More details to follow …
Updated
Israeli deployment of new military AI in Gaza war raises fears by defence experts
Israel’s army has deployed artificial intelligence-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, raising fears about the use of autonomous weapons in modern warfare, reports AFP.
The army has hinted at what the new tech is being used for, with spokesperson Daniel Hagari saying last month that Israel’s forces were operating “above and underground simultaneously”.
A senior defence official told AFP the tech was destroying enemy drones and mapping Hamas’s vast tunnel network in Gaza.
The rising civilian death toll shows that much greater oversight is needed over the use of new forms of defence tech, Mary Wareham, an arms expert at Human Rights Watch, told AFP.
“Now we’re facing the worst possible situation of death and suffering that we’re seeing today – some of that is being brought about by the new tech,” she said.
More than 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying “serious challenges and concerns” in new military tech, including “artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems.”
Updated
'People in hospitals should always feel safe' says UN health agency as it warns over Gaza healthcare attacks
More than 350 attacks have taken place against healthcare in Gaza since hostilities erupted, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, stating that the “unrelenting war in Gaza hasn’t spared hospitals, their staff or the people sheltering there”.
A total of 645 people have died since 7 October and another 818 were injured as a result of these incidents, said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, his comments coming amid allegations that a nurse was shot and critically injured while inside an operating theatre at a hospital in Khan Younis.
“These attacks have affected 98 healthcare facilities, including 27 hospitals damaged out of 36, and affected 90 ambulances, including 50 which sustained damage,” Jasarevic told journalists in Geneva.
The latest WHO data also highlighted the growing number of attacks on healthcare in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza-Israel war erupted on 7 October. At least 364 attacks on healthcare have happened in the West Bank, resulting in 10 fatalities and 62 injuries, Jasarevic said. He noted that 44 health facilities had been affected, including 15 mobile clinics and 24 ambulances.
Speaking on Friday, Jasarevic said: “People in hospitals should always feel safe. Those should be safe havens where people come to get medical care and should not be afraid for their lives.”
“Health facilities are protected under international humanitarian law,” he added telling reporters that WHO has reminded involved parties of this again and again:
We keep repeating our appeal to all parties of the conflict to respect that health workers, ambulances, hospitals [and] patients should never be a target and should be protected.”
Jasarevic said that although WHO are monitoring the numbers of attacks, it does not have the capacity or mandate to know which weapons have been used or by who.
Updated
Saudi foreign ministry cautions against the 'extremely dangerous repercussions' of Israel 'targeting' Rafah
The Saudi foreign ministry has cautioned against the “extremely dangerous repercussions” of Israel “storming and targeting” the city of Rafah.
According to Al Jazeera, in a statement shared on X, the ministry said:
This continued violation of international law and international humanitarian law confirms the necessity of convening the UN security council urgently to prevent Israel from causing an imminent humanitarian catastrophe for which everyone who supports the aggression bears responsibility.”
Updated
Israeli forces continue siege of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, reports Al Jazeera
Israeli occupation forces have continued their siege of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis for the 20th day and have reached its northern gate, reports Al Jazeera.
“The occupation forces have been besieging us for 20 days and we are suffering from a shortage of food and drink,” Nahidh Abu Tamiyya, the head of the surgical department told an Al Jazeera correspondent.
According to Wafa news agency, medical sources reported that two Palestinians have been killed by an Israeli sniper – one in front of the reception gate, and the other in the emergency department.
Al Jazeera say the same sources added that medical teams cannot move between the complex’s buildings due to the snipers, and stressed that the lives of 300 health personnel, 450 patients and wounded, and 10,000 displaced people inside the Nasser medical complex are threatened.
Updated
Hamas warns Israeli Rafah operation may cause casualties in ‘tens of thousands’
Hamas on Saturday warned that there could be “tens of thousands” of dead and injured if the Israeli military attacked Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip reports AFP.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go in to the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians. The announcement prompted concern from foreign governments including the US and aid agencies grappling with a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of the war.
Hamas said in a statement that any military action would have catastrophic repercussion that “may lead to tens of thousands of martyrs and injured if Rafah … is invaded”.
The Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip said it would hold “the American administration, international community and the Israeli occupation” responsible if that happened.
The UN says about half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are now sheltering in the city, with many sleeping outside in tents and makeshift shelters, and mounting concern about lack of food, water and sanitation.
On Friday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said a major Israeli offensive in Rafah “can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy”.
Netanyahu has ordered military officials to draw up plans for “evacuating” Rafah alongside “destroying” Hamas fighters in the city.
AFP say witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early Saturday, raising fears among Palestinians of a looming ground invasion.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has held meetings in Lebanon with regional groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and various Palestinian groups, reports Al Jazeera citing according posts on Telegram.
According to the posts, Amir-Abdollahian met Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati to discuss bilateral, regional and international developments. He also met Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah and discussed political and security developments concerning the war in Gaza and the group’s fighting with Israel in southern Lebanon, says Al Jazeera.
The Qatar-based news organisation says Amir-Abdollahian met the leaders of Palestinian groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhaleh and Osama Hamdan, a former senior representative of Hamas in Lebanon and a member of the organisation’s politburo.
Updated
A six-year-old Palestinian girl who went missing after the family’s car came under fire in Gaza has been found dead, the Hamas-run health ministry and her relatives said, accusing Israel of killing her reports AFP
The last time Hind Rajab had been seen was about two weeks ago when she was surrounded by dead relatives after becoming trapped in the vehicle as they tried to flee Gaza City as Israeli forces advanced. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had frequently posted updates on its X account pleading for updates and information on Rajab. The BBC had also highlighted her story.
🚨 Urgent: The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance was discovered bombed the Tal al-Hawa area of #Gaza City, resulting in the killing of crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, who had been missing since a rescue mission for the child Hind Rajab 12 days ago.#NotATarget❌… pic.twitter.com/dCgfeevTd8
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 10, 2024
“Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred,” the girl’s grandfather, Baha Hamada told AFP. A number of family members found her and the other victims on Saturday when they went to Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa area looking for the car near a petrol station where it had last been spotted, he said.
“They were able to reach the area because Israeli forces withdrew early at dawn today,” Hamada added. The health ministry confirmed Hind’s death.
“She was killed by [Israeli] occupation forces with all those who were with her in the car outside the petrol station in Tel al-Hawa,” the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier this week, family members had said the group found their way in the path of Israeli tanks and were fired on as they tried to flee.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not comment on the incident.
'Every single person in Gaza is now hungry' - charities and Palestinians report dire food situation
Children are going without food for days and some people are resorting to grinding animal feed into flour to survive, says the BBC who spoke to people living in north Gaza. People also described digging down into the soil to access water pipes, for drinking and washing.
International charity ActionAid has said that food is becoming so scarce in Gaza that people are resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry, and people have just 1.5 to 2 litres of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs,” said ActionAid in a statement published that warned intensifying attacks in Rafah would have “disastrous consequences”.
The UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday that almost one in 10 of Gazan children under five are now acutely malnourished. Ocha also said more than half the aid missions to the north of Gaza were denied access last month, and that there is increasing interference from Israeli forces in how and where aid is delivered.
It says 300,000 people estimated to be living in northern areas are largely cut off from assistance, and face a growing risk of famine.
The food supplies that Gaza depends on have shrivelled from their prewar level, and aid workers have reported visible signs of starvation, especially in areas of northern and central Gaza worst hit by Israel’s war on Hamas since 7 October, reports Reuters.
Updated
Iran’s football federation said on Saturday it had asked world football’s governing body, Fifa, to suspend Israel’s football federation over the country’s war in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In an announcement posted on the Iranian football federation’s website, Iran asked Fifa to “completely suspend” the Israeli federation “from all activities related to football”.
The request also asks for “immediate and serious measures” by Fifa and its member associations “to prevent the continuation” of the Israeli “crimes and provide food, drinking water, medicinal and medical supplies to innocent people and civilians”.
The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel and prohibits all contact between Iranian and Israeli athletes.
The Iranian authorities last August gave a lifetime ban to Mostafa Rajaei, a weightlifter, after he shook hands with an Israeli competitor at an event in Poland, state media reported at the time. The Iranian weightlifting federation also dismissed the head of the delegation for the competition, Hamid Salehinia.
In 2021, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged athletes “not to shake hands with a representative of the [Israeli] criminal regime to obtain a medal”.
A group of Middle Eastern football associations, including Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have also “asked world football chiefs to ban Israel over the war on Hamas in Gaza,” Sky News reported on Thursday.
UNRWA staff accused by Israel sacked without evidence, chief admits
My colleague, Emine Sinmaz reported on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) press conference held in Jersualem on Friday. You can read the full story here:
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said he did not probe Israel’s claims against the employees before dismissing them and launching an investigation.
At a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini was asked if he had looked into whether there was any evidence against the employees and he replied: “No, the investigation is going on now.”
He described the decision as “reverse due process”, adding: “I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate [them].”
The below satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC show how the population of Rafah has swelled to more than 1.5 million people – roughly three-quarters of Gaza’s population – as people flee fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The southern Gaza town of is normally home to 280,000 people.
We have superimposed the two images here to bring the contrast into focus:
Updated
Three people killed in Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, say the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Israeli airstrikes that targeted a building in an upmarket area near the Syrian capital killed three people early Saturday, reports AFP citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people were killed in the airstrikes but could not immediately confirm whether the dead were fighters.
Rahman added that many other people were injured in the strikes on a neighbourhood hosting “villas for top military and officials.”
The war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, earlier reported the “Israeli attack” on “a residential building west of the Syrian capital Damascus”, with the sound of “violent explosions”.
AFP say that state media reported that Syrian air defences responded to an Israeli “air attack”.
State news agency Sana cited a military source saying that at about 1.05 am (10.05pm GMT Friday), “the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the Damascus countryside”.
Air defences responded to the missiles and “downed some of them”, the statement said, adding that the attack caused “some material losses”.
The strikes came hours after an area near a military airport west of Damascus came under missile attack on Friday, the Observatory said, while the defence ministry said drones had entered Syrian airspace from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Observatory did not say who was behind what it described as a “missile” attack.
“Positions belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups are present” in the area, added the Observatory.
Updated
Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says
My colleague, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour has written this piece on a senior UN official who said Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza. You can read the full piece at the link below:
Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said.
The Israeli government was given until 23 February to report to the ICJ on what it has done to comply with six orders the court issued, including one relating to ending incitement to genocide and another requiring immediate steps to improve the supply of humanitarian aid.
Senior western officials say that despite hours of negotiations with Israeli officials there is at best a marginal and incremental improvement since the 26 January ruling. “Safe to say, it’s dire and getting worse,” one said.
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Israel's ground offensive on Rafah would be 'catastrophic', say Doctors Without Borders
Displaced Palestinians have flooded into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands are sleeping in tents pushed up against the Egyptian border, reports AgenceFrance-Presse (AFP).
AFP images showed scenes of devastation, with people queueing for increasingly scarce water. Rights groups have sounded alarm at the prospect of a ground incursion.
“Israel’s declared ground offensive on Rafah would be catastrophic and must not proceed,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. “There is no place that is safe in Gaza and no way for people to leave.”
Gaza is in urgent need of clean water.
— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) February 8, 2024
At least half of the water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, according to UNICEF.
UNRWA reports that 70% of the population is resorting to drinking salty or contaminated water, putting their health at risk.… pic.twitter.com/yLxKeFr3dC
“There is no safe place in Rafah. If they storm Rafah, we will die in our homes,” sixty-year-old Jaber al-Bardini told AFP.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Saturday said that at least 110 people were killed in overnight bombardment, including more than 20 in strikes in Rafah.
The previous day, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that three children were killed in a strike in Rafah. The PCRS also said that Israeli forces raided al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s biggest city, on Friday after a weeks-long siege during which the PRCS reported “intense artillery shelling and heavy gunfire”.
The medical organisation said Israeli forces had arrested eight of its team members at the hospital, including “four doctors, as well as four wounded individuals and five patients’ companions”.
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28 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah
A hospital official and Associated Press (AP) journalists say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Each strike killed multiple members of three families, including 10 children, the youngest just three months old, say AP.
The strikes early Saturday came hours after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the southern Gaza city ahead of a ground invasion.
He did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off widespread panic. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after being uprooted repeatedly by Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of Gaza’s territory.
US officials have said an invasion of Rafah without a plan for the civilian population would lead to disaster.
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Rafah almost daily, even after telling civilians in recent weeks to seek shelter there from ground combat in the city of Khan Younis, just to the north, say AP.
In Khan Younis, the focus of the current ground combat, Israeli forces opened fire at Nasser hospital, the area’s largest, killing at least one person and wounding several, said Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
He said medical staff are no longer able to move between the facility’s buildings because of the intense fire. He said 300 medical personnel, 450 patients and 10,000 displaced people are sheltering in the hospital.
Israeli offensive in Rafah would have 'catastrophic consequences', EU’s Borell says
Israel’s plans for a military offensive on Rafah in the Gaza Strip are “alarming”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.
Josep Borell said on social media platform X that “1.4 million Palestinians are currently in Rafah without safe place to go, facing starvation”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Rafah is the southernmost city in the Palestinian territory hit by Israel’s fierce offensive since Hamas’s 7 October attacks and many of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million have taken refuge there.
“Reports of an Israeli military offensive on Rafah are alarming,” Borell said.
It would have catastrophic consequences worsening the already dire humanitarian situation and the unbearable civilian toll.
Earlier, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told officials to “submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions” of Hamas holed up in Rafah, his office said.
Netanyahu said this week he had ordered troops to prepare to move into Rafah, and that “total victory” against the militants would come in months.
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Opening summary
We are restarting our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here is an overview of the latest key developments.
Israel’s plans for a military offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip are “alarming”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.
“1.4 million Palestinians are currently in Rafah without safe place to go, facing starvation,” Josep Borell said on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
Many of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have taken refuge in the territory’s southernmost city.
“Reports of an Israeli military offensive on Rafah are alarming,” Borell said, adding it would have “catastrophic consequences”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday that a “massive operation” was needed in Rafah and he ordered Israel’s military to prepare for evacuating the city ahead of an expected invasion.
More on that shorty. In other news:
The head of the Palestinian Authority said Israel’s escalation in Rafah aimed to push Palestinians from their land. The office of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said he held the Israeli and US governments responsible for any effects of the expected invasion and that Israel’s actions threatened regional peace and security.
Civilians in Gaza were at “grave risk of genocide” in response to Israel ordering people in Rafah to evacuate, said Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard.
The Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general warned of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expanded to Rafah. “No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” Jan Egeland said. Aid workers said an Israeli advance into the area could cause mass deaths among those trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces had raided the society’s al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, and were searching it. “We’re finding it difficult to communicate with our crews inside the hospital,” the society said on Friday. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
At least 22 people, including children and women, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah and in central Gaza overnight into Friday. The attacks hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in the central town of Zuwaida. The dead and wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, where the bodies were seen Associated Press journalists.
Undercover Israeli killings in a West Bank hospital “may be war crimes”, a group of UN experts said. The killing of three Palestinian men in the hospital by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women last month may meet the threshold for war crimes, they alleged.
