Closing summary
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed on Sunday he would launch an offensive into the southern city of Rafah despite growing international concern over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there. Netanyahu was quoted by AFP as saying that “no amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war”. Netanyahu’s office has said the Israeli army was preparing “operational issues” and the evacuation of the civilian population from Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than a million people displaced from elsewhere in the territory have sought shelter.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would make regional peace “very difficult”, after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah. This is one of the main arguments he will bring to talks with Netanyahu later on Sunday during his trip to the region, he said. “Israel has every right to protect itself. At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there,” the German leader said.
Benjamin Netanyahu responded to a call by Chuck Schumer, the US Senate leader and ally of Joe Biden, for Israel to hold new elections. On Thursday, Schumer said he believed Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”. The Israeli prime minister responded on Sunday, saying that a pause in fighting to allow for elections to take place would paralyse the country for months. He said: “If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure.” Netanyahu told CNN that he believed the Schumer intervention was “totally inappropriate”.
The Palestinian foreign ministry has said that Benjamin Netanyahu’s “continuous threats” to invade Rafah, where about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have sought refuge, “pose a blatant challenge to the international and American consensus on protecting civilians”. It said in a statement on X that “blind revenge dominates the Israeli government and threatens the security and stability of the region and the world”.
Trucks of flour have reached northern Gaza for distribution to areas that have had no aid in four months, Palestinian media reported on Sunday. A convoy of 12 trucks arrived in the north of the enclave on Saturday – six in Gaza City and six in the Jabalia refugee camp – carrying supplies to also be distributed to the northernmost areas of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, according to reports.
There have been no medical evacuations from northern Gaza for more than a month so severely injured people are trapped in damaged hospitals where they cannot get adequate treatment, Cadus, a leading medical charity, warned.
An Israeli strike overnight killed 12 people in one house in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the tiny, crowded Gaza Strip, the health ministry said.
At least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed and 73,676 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria on Sunday morning, injuring a soldier, Syrian state media reported, according to the Associated Press. State news agency Sana, citing an unnamed military official, said air defences shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The strikes led to “material losses” and the injuring of a soldier, the statement said earlier.
Updated
A source familiar with the truce talks in Qatar has told Reuters the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency would join the delegation attending the negotiations with Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators.
Hamas presented a new ceasefire proposal last week including an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s security cabinet is to meet to discuss it before the delegation leaves.
Netanyahu has already said the proposal was based on “unrealistic demands”, but a Palestinian official familiar with mediation efforts said chances for a deal looked better with Hamas having given more details on the proposed prisoner swap.
“The mediators felt positive about Hamas’ new proposal. Some in Israel felt the group made some improvement on its previous position and it is now in the hands of Netanyahu alone to say whether an agreement is imminent,” the official said.
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Palestinian foreign ministry says 'blind revenge dominates Israeli government'
The Palestinian foreign ministry has said that Benjamin Netanyahu’s “continuous threats” to invade Rafah, where about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have sought refuge, “pose a blatant challenge to the international and American consensus on protecting civilians”.
It said in a statement on X that “blind revenge dominates the Israeli government and threatens the security and stability of the region and the world”.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry// Netanyahu's continuous threats to invade #Rafah pose a blatant challenge to the international and American consensus on protecting civilians.
— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) March 17, 2024
Blind revenge dominates the Israeli government and threatens the security and… pic.twitter.com/9SOEGS8yj3
The statement was posted after Netanyahu earlier dismissed international pressure by saying he would launch an offensive in Rafah (see earlier post at 11.21 for more details).
Updated
Netanyahu says Schumer's call for Israel election was 'totally inappropriate'
In a further quote from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of an interview with US news channel CNN, he says the Schumer intervention was “totally inappropriate”:
I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, last week called for Israel to hold new elections, in comments that upset its ruling party and allies on Capitol Hill.
He said he had a longstanding relationship with Netanyahu but believed he “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.
Republican congressman Michael McCaul, who leads the House of Representatives foreign relations committee, criticised Schumer’s remarks, comparing them to an effort to topple Israel’s government.
“You don’t talk about toppling a government in a democracy,” McCaul told Fox News Sunday, calling Schumer’s remarks “very inappropriate” and “embarrassing”.
The US president, Joe Biden, said on Friday that Schumer’s comments echoed the concerns of many Americans, describing the remarks as a “good speech”.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday that Biden believed it was up to Israel to make its own decisions about internal politics.
“We respect the sovereignty of the Israeli people,” Kirby told Fox News Sunday. “The president believes it’s up to the Israeli people and the Israeli government to determine if and when there’s going to be new elections.”
Updated
Netanyahu says elections would cause Israel to lose war
Netanyahu has responded to a call by Chuck Schumer, the US Senate leader and ally of Joe Biden, for Israel to hold new elections.
On Thursday, Schumer said he believed Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.
The Israeli prime minister responded on Sunday, saying that a pause in fighting to allow for elections to take place would paralyse the country for months:
If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure …
No international pressure will stop us from realising all of the goals of the war: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.”
Polls show that any election now would result in a loss of power for Netanyahu.
Updated
Reuters has some quotes from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Netanyahu confirmed earlier that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war.
“We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.
Olaf Scholz: Rafah assault would make regional peace 'very difficult'
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would make regional peace “very difficult”, Reuters reports.
This is one of the main arguments he will bring to talks with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, later on Sunday during his trip to the region, he said.
“Right now, it is about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire,” Scholz said after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah at his private residence in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba.
“That would enable us to prevent such a ground offensive from taking place.”
Asked if he was prepared to exert pressure on Netanyahu to stop such an assault, Scholz said it was “very clear we must do everything so the situation does not get worse than it already is”.
“Israel has every right to protect itself. At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there.”
Israel – which on Friday approved a plan to attack Rafah – says the city is one of the last strongholds of Hamas, which it has pledged to eliminate, and that residents will be evacuated.
The US president, Joe Biden, and officials with the UN, however, have warned that an Israeli military ground offensive in Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, would lead to a “bloodbath”.
In a post on X, Scholz also said on Sunday that he wants to see a much larger amount of aid being delivered via land routes, a topic he said he would raise when speaking with Netanyahu in Jerusalem later today.
تدعم ألمانيا الأردن في إطار الجسر الجوي من أجل غزة. كذلك فإن جلالة الملك عبد الله الثاني وأنا متفقان: يتعين أيضا عبر الطرق البرية توصيل كمية أكبر بكثير من المساعدات. وسوف يكون هذا أحد محاور حديثي مع رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي نتنياهو في القدس. pic.twitter.com/ewAIqUbUxu
— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) March 17, 2024
Summary of the day so far...
Trucks of flour have reached northern Gaza for distribution to areas that have had no aid in four months, Palestinian media reported on Sunday. A convoy of 12 trucks arrived in the north of the enclave on Saturday – six in Gaza City and six in the Jabalia refugee camp – carrying supplies to also be distributed to the northernmost areas of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, according to reports.
There have been no medical evacuations from northern Gaza for more than a month so severely injured people are trapped in damaged hospitals where they cannot get adequate treatment, Cadus, a leading medical charity, warned.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said Israel’s allies have a short memory regarding Hamas’ 7 October attack, and that Israel would push on with its Gaza offensive, including in the city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure not to. “To our friends in the international community I say: is your memory so short? So quickly you forgot about Oct. 7, the worst massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust?” Netanyahu said at the start of his cabinet meeting. “So quickly you are ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas?” Netanyahu’s office has said the Israeli army was preparing “operational issues” and the evacuation of the civilian population from Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than a million people displaced from elsewhere in the territory have sought shelter.
An Israeli strike overnight killed 12 people in one house in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the tiny, crowded Gaza Strip, the health ministry said.
At least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed and 73,676 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria on Sunday morning, injuring a soldier, Syrian state media reported, according to the Associated Press. State news agency Sana, citing an unnamed military official, said air defences shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The strikes led to “material losses” and the injuring of a soldier, the statement said.
Updated
Aid reaches northern Gaza amid reports that many Palestinians are on brink of famine
Trucks of flour have reached northern Gaza for distribution to areas that have had no aid in four months, Palestinian media reported on Sunday.
A convoy of 12 trucks arrived in the north of the enclave on Saturday – six in Gaza City and six in the Jabalia refugee camp – carrying supplies to also be distributed to the northernmost areas of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, according to reports.
The news come after aid agencies warned that pockets of Gaza already face famine, with hospitals in the north reporting children dying of malnutrition and dehydration.
Israel, which has been urged to facilitate greater access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, has previously blamed failures by aid agencies for delays and accuses Hamas of diverting aid. Hamas denies this and says Israel uses hunger as a weapon in its war.
Updated
Netanyahu: Israel's allies have a short memory in regard to 7 October attack
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said Israel’s allies have a short memory regarding Hamas’ 7 October attack, and that Israel would push on with its Gaza offensive, including in the city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure not to.
“To our friends in the international community I say: is your memory so short? So quickly you forgot about Oct. 7, the worst massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust?” Netanyahu said at the start of his cabinet meeting.
“So quickly you are ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas?”
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back into the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu’s office has said the Israeli army was preparing “operational issues” and the evacuation of the civilian population from Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than a million people displaced from elsewhere in the territory have sought shelter.
Officials in Israel have repeatedly said destroying any remaining Hamas forces in Rafah is essential to achieving their war aims.
Any attack on Rafah is likely to cause more civilian casualties and worsen an already acute humanitarian crisis across Gaza.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Sunday after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah in Jordan that the large number of civilian casualties that would result from such an assault would make regional peace “very difficult”.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces released Tamer Fouad Salim Al-Qarm, a PRCS volunteer, yesterday after a “36-day detention during the occupation’s raid on al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis”.
The PRCS added in its post on X that Israeli troops continue to detain 13 PRCS members and volunteers, “whose fate remains unknown to this moment”.
The Israeli occupation forces released yesterday the PRCS volunteer, Tamer Fouad Salim Al-Qarm, after a 36-day detention during the occupation's raid on Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis. Meanwhile, the occupation continues to detain 13 PRCS members and volunteers, whose fate… pic.twitter.com/mYWiDybgJy
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 17, 2024
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, has been quoted as telling Israeli Army Radio that “the cost of Gaza rehabilitation is not my problem”, when asked if there were any promises from Arab nations to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza.
The US president, Joe Biden, has warned that Israel would cross a “red line” if it proceeded with a large-scale invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where the war has pushed nearly half of Gaza’s population.
Reports suggest that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has approved a plan to invade the city, where medics have reported a shortage of medications and have warned of the spread of diseases.
“We’re facing shortages of medications, especially paediatric medicines,” Dr Samar Gregea, who works at a clinic run by Palestinian volunteers that offers treatment for displaced Palestinians, said.
“There are a lot of patients in the camp, with all children suffering from malnutrition,” she told AFP, also reporting the “widespread presence of hepatitis A”.
“Children require foods high in sugars, like dates, which are currently unavailable.”
Updated
Overnight Israeli bombardment kills 12 members of same family in Deir-al Balah, health ministry says
At least 61 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday.
The territory’s health ministry said 12 members of the same family, whose house in Deir al-Balah was hit, were among those killed overnight, AFP reports.
Shelling and clashes were reported in south Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis and elsewhere.
Updated
Israel’s security cabinet and the smaller war cabinet were to meet to “decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha,” the prime minister’s office has said.
Its statement did not specify when the delegation would leave for the latest round of talks which comes after Hamas submitted a new proposal for a pause in fighting and hostage release.
Updated
Israeli forces arrested eight Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, local news sources said, according to Al Jazeera.
The arrests reportedly took place in Qalqilya, Hebron and Jenin after Israeli troops raided Palestinian homes.
There have been no medical evacuations from northern Gaza for over a month, charity warns
There have been no medical evacuations from northern Gaza for more than a month so severely injured people are trapped in damaged hospitals where they cannot get adequate treatment, a leading medical charity has warned.
Ambulances need urgent access to take the most vulnerable patients for specialist care, said Patrick Münz, head of mission in Gaza for German medical charity Cadus.
There are no intensive care units operating in northern Gaza, so Palestinians most seriously injured in Israeli airstrikes and fighting on the ground have died.
You can read the full story by my colleague, Emma Graham-Harrison, here:
Updated
Death toll in Gaza reaches 31,645, says health ministry
At least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed and 73,676 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
Israel reportedly strikes several sites in Syria
More now on reports that Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early on Sunday.
The Associated Press is reporting that state news agency Sana, citing an unnamed military official, said air defences shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at about 12.42am local time. The strikes led to “material losses” and the wounding of a soldier, the statement said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes also hit two military sites in the Qalamoun mountains northeast of Damascus, an area where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has operations. One of the targets was a weapons shipment, the observatory said.
The observatory said the strikes represented the 24th time Israel has struck inside Syria since the beginning of 2024. They have killed 43 fighters with various groups – including Hezbollah and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard – and nine civilians.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes. Israel frequently launches strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledges them.
Last week, the Israeli army said it has carried out 4,500 strikes against Hezbollah targets over the past five months, most of which were in Lebanon, while a few were in Syria.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis.
Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria on Sunday morning, injuring a soldier, Syrian state media reported, according to the Associated Press.
State news agency Sana, citing an unnamed military official, said air defences shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The strikes led to “material losses” and the injuring of a soldier, the statement said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes also hit two military sites in the Qalamoun mountains northeast of Damascus, an area where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has operations. One of the targets was a weapons shipment, the observatory said.
Here are some of the other latest developments:
Israeli negotiators are expected to arrive in Qatar on Sunday amid intense new efforts to bring the war in Gaza to at least a temporary halt. The talks between the Mossad head David Barnea, Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials will focus on remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas including over prisoner releases and humanitarian aid, a source told Reuters.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is expected to travel to Israel today for meetings with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, according to reports.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Sunday it has received a report of an incident 85 nautical miles (157 km or 98 miles) east of Yemen’s Aden, an area where Houthi militant groups often target ships they say are linked to Israel or the US. The US military’s Central Command, meanwhile, said its forces successfully destroyed drones in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said on Saturday that “one in three children under two years of age are now acutely malnourished in northern Gaza” in a social media post on X. “Children’s malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza. Famine is looming. There is no time to waste,” it added, sharing a press release on the situation by Unicef. The health ministry in Gaza has in recent weeks recorded at least 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.
A second cargo of food aid was ready to depart by sea from Cyprus to Gaza on Saturday, the island’s president said. World Central Kitchen later said rough weather made it hard to predict when the vessel, the Jennifer, carrying 240 tonnes of food, would set sail.
At least seven Palestinians were killed in attacks on Nuseirat camp on Saturday morning, reported Al Jazeera.
At least 61 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday.
A Palestinian gunman opened fire toward a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and was then shot dead by Israeli soldiers there, Israel’s military said. The man opened fire from the Palestinian cemetery in Hebron at the adjacent Jewish settlement, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels discussed “expanding confrontations and encircling” Israel in a meeting in Lebanon with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, a Houthi official told AFP on Saturday. Representatives from Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine met last week with the Houthis in Beirut, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo warned Israel on Saturday against using hunger as a “weapon of war” in the Gaza Strip, reported Politico. Separately, in a post on X, the Belgian prime minister said his country “continues to support Unrwa” and described it as the “backbone of aid to the people in Gaza”.
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