Summary
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
The French ambassador to the UN security council addressed reporters on Thursday regarding Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, saying, “The first bridge to cross … is to have this Ramadan ceasefire now.” His comments come after the US, which has vetoed numerous ceasefire resolution in the UN security council, drafted a new resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and hostage deal in Gaza.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that negotiating teams are working “every single day” on a deal to get a ceasefire in Gaza in conjunction with a deal to release the remaining hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas. He added that there are still “real challenges” to a deal and he can’t put a timeline on it, Reuters reports.
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, said on Thursday that he plans to invite Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before the US Congress. The comments come a week after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called for elections in Israel which could oust Netanyahu, claiming the prime minister has “has lost his way”.
Cyprus is planning to get “as many boats as possible” to Gaza along a maritime corridor, Cyprus’s foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said, Agence France-Presse reports. In a meeting on Thursday, Cyprus hosted representatives from 36 countries, UN agencies and humanitarian groups in the port of Larnaca, where the first aid vessel set sail to Gaza earlier this month.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said that the “future of an entire generation is in serious peril” in Gaza. Adding that children are dying from the effects of malnutrition and disease, and from a lack of adequate water and sanitation, the WHO director-general said: “Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land crossings will enable large scale deliveries to prevent famine.”
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said that she will visit the Middle East on Sunday. It will be her seventh visit since the 7 October attack inside southern Israel by Hamas.
A second ship, the Jennifer, capable of transporting up to 600 tons, will ply the newly inaugurated sea corridor connecting Cyprus with Gaza as soon as weather conditions allow. “It will go either at the end of this week or the beginning of next due to weather conditions,” Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian of the second aid mission.
Satellite images analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) showed that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged by Israel since October. Khan Younis City had been hit “particularly hard”, it said, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.
Updated
“Now it’s time to save lives … The [Palestinian] death toll … needs to stop now. This is why I will encourage the security council to take action … before the weekend,” France’s ambassador to the UNSC, Nicolas de Rivière, said at a press conference on Thursday.
“We cannot procrastinate again and again,” he added.
“The first bridge to cross … is to have this Ramadan ceasefire now,” he said.
Updated
Antony Blinken, talking in Cairo, has said that in addition to progress being made towards a ceasefire in Gaza, there has been progress towards the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said that negotiating teams are working “every single day” on a deal to get a ceasefire in Gaza in conjunction with a deal to release the remaining hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas.
He added that there are still “real challenges” to a deal and he can’t put a timeline on it, Reuters reports.
Joe Biden had previously forecast that there would be a deal for a temporary ceasefire before the start of Ramadan on 10 March, which obviously did not happen.
Blinken, in Cairo for talks, once again urged Israel to “do more” to get more aid into Gaza, while international figures at the United Nations have already accused Israel of deliberately starving the Palestinians in the besieged territory.
Updated
Consensus among US and Arab allies on need for immediate, sustained ceasefire in Gaza – Blinken
US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke moments ago in the Middle East, where he said that he believes a ceasefire deal for Gaza is still possible.
Blinken has flown once again to Cairo for a new round of talks, which have taken on new urgency in the face of famine unfolding in Gaza as it remains under Israeli blockade and bombardment. He said there is consensus among Arab allies and the US on the need for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.
The secretary said that the US is continuing to push for an agreement to be reached in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Qataris have been acting as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militancy that controls Gaza and led the attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 240 people hostage, many of whom are still being held by Hamas and connected groups in the Palestinian territory.
Reuters reports that Blinken said about a ceasefire deal:
There’s still difficult work to get there, but I continue to believe it’s possible.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said he agreed with Blinken on planning “concrete steps” to increase aid to Gaza and continuing coordination.
Updated
Washington’s draft UN security council resolution on Gaza marks a shift in the US position, but it is a nuanced shift, retaining the linkage between a ceasefire and hostage release while loosening that linkage and emphasising that an immediate end to hostilities is the priority.
The primary focus for now is the hostage negotiations underway in Qatar which are moving into high gear again, with CIA and Mossad chiefs, William Burns and David Barnea expected to fly into Doha on Friday.
The US draft resolution is designed to provide a sense of urgency to those talks. It also represents an attempt by the Biden administration to keep pressure on Hamas while seeking to regain some international credibility and mend ties with allies after three vetoes of UN ceasefire resolutions.
The latest veto was cast on 20 February, on an Algerian ceasefire resolution. At the time the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, insisted that an unconditional ceasefire could derail the talks on a hostage deal, which Washington portrayed as the best way to a sustainable truce. The US mission at the UN circulated an alternative text which the security council “underscores its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released”.
A month has passed since then, however. There has been no hostage deal and Gaza has slipped much further towards absolute catastrophe, with a UN panel of experts warning that a famine is imminent. The US is struggling to avoid the accusation of complicity in that disaster, and February’s version of the text now looks all the more complacent.
The new version of the draft resolution circulated on Thursday morning represents stronger language.
Read the full piece here.
Updated
US House speaker to invite Netanyahu to address Congress
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Thursday that he plans to invite Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to speak before Congress.
The comments come a week after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called for elections in Israel which could oust Netanyahu, claiming the prime minister has “has lost his way”.
Republican support for Netanyahu has remained staunch, despite the death toll in Gaza rising to more than 30,000 in the face of Israel’s continued military action.
“I would love to have him come in and address a joint session of Congress,” Johnson said on Thursday morning, in an interview with CNBC. “We’ll certainly extend that invitation.”
Updated
Having babies in Gaza is “just a frightening experience”, Unrwa senior deputy director Scott Anderson said.
Following his visit to Gaza, where Israeli forces have decimated nearly all of the strip’s healthcare facilities since 7 October while killing more than 31,000 Palestinians, Anderson delivered a video address outside Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza City.
He said:
As we toured the hospital today, I saw a sign that said ‘We’re having a baby’ which normally is a joyous time … For the people that are in Gaza city, having babies is not a joyous experience, it’s a frightening experience. Mothers are concerned they won’t be alive in two weeks. They are concerned that the hospital won’t be here in two weeks. And they’re trying to have babies early to give up their lives to preserve their baby’s …
This is entirely a man-made disaster, a man-made situation, and what we did to create this situation, man can do to save the situation.
"For the people that are in Gaza City having babies is not a joyful experience - it's just a frightening experience."@ScottAnderGaza visited a hospital in northern #Gaza, where the situation is dire & famine is imminent.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 21, 2024
The worst can still be averted with political will. pic.twitter.com/H3oK76TmB6
In a report released earlier this month amid Israel’s deadly war on Gaza, the UN found that an estimated 37 mothers are killed every day. Meanwhile, more than four out of five women report that their family eats half or less of the food they used to before the war began.
The scarcity in food across the strip comes amid the restricted caloric intake, or “humanitarian minimum”, Israel’s own officials set on Palestinians in Gaza years ago.
Updated
Cyprus is planning to get “as many boats as possible” to Gaza along a maritime corridor, Cyprus’s foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said, Agence France-Presse reports.
In a meeting on Thursday, Cyprus hosted representatives from 36 countries, UN agencies and humanitarian groups in the port of Larnaca, where the first aid vessel set sail to Gaza earlier this month.
The meeting “is about integrating all the states and entities that are participating in order to have a synchronised pace for our actions”, said Kombos, adding that the goal was to get “as many boats as possible [to leave for Gaza] … utilising and leveraging … our geographical position in the area”.
Updated
Working alongside the Turkish Red Crescent, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society distributed food parcels to displaced families in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday:
The PRCS teams distributed food parcels in partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent to a number of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis #Gaza pic.twitter.com/m1KusZ9hy4
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 21, 2024
Updated
Following a since-deleted tweet in which Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy claimed earlier this month that there were “no limits” on the entry of aid into Gaza, as well as Levy’s claims that the UN closes the Kerem Shalom crossing on Saturdays, UK foreign secretary David Cameron addressed the claims in a reply to MP Alicia Kearns, who raised aid entry concerns to him.
In his letter, Cameron wrote:
In response to the Israeli spokesman claims you quote in your letter, I can confirm that the UN has not requested that the Kerem Shalom crossing is closed on Saturdays. It is our understanding that Israel closes it due to the Sabbath.
He went on to add:
It is of enormous frustration that UK aid for Gaza has been routinely held up waiting for Israeli permission. For instance, I am aware of some UK funded aid being stuck at the border for just under three weeks waiting for approval.
The main blockers remain arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and the lengthy clearance procedures, including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours.
Grateful to @David_Cameron for such clarity in his response to my letter. He confirms, contrary to some claims:
— Alicia Kearns MP (@aliciakearns) March 21, 2024
- The UN has NOT requested the Kerem Shalom crossing be closed on Saturdays. Israel closes it due to the Sabbath.
- Aid not getting into Gaza due to “arbitrary… https://t.co/DTP0Vl5Ohz pic.twitter.com/cvrmdwRhOi
On Tuesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Levy was suspended, the Jerusalem Post reports. A reason was not provided.
Since October, Israeli forces have killed more than 31,000 Palestinians across Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel’s attacks on the narrow strip have left about 2 million survivors forcibly displaced amid a severe food shortage that is an “entirely man-made disaster”, as described by UN chief António Guterres.
Updated
WHO's Tedros: 'future of an entire generation is in serious peril' in Gaza
Reuters is carrying some quotes from the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He said “The future of an entire generation is in serious peril.”
Adding that children are dying from the effects of malnutrition and disease, and from a lack of adequate water and sanitation, the WHO director-general said:
Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land crossings will enable large scale deliveries to prevent famine. Once again, we ask Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza.
He said that WHO requests to deliver supplies to the enclave were often blocked or refused.
Israel, which insists on inspecting all aid being delivered into Gaza, has repeatedly claimed there is no limit to what would be admitted. Nevertheless, a coalition of aid groups has warned that famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”, and on Monday Oxfam said Israeli authorities were preventing “a warehouse full of international aid” from reaching the Gaza Strip.
In his statement, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
WHO and our partners have been conducting high-risk missions to deliver medicines, fuel and food for health workers and their patients, but our requests to deliver supplies are often blocked or refused.
Damaged roads and continuous fighting, including in and close to hospitals, mean deliveries are few and slow. A planned mission to al-Shifa today had to be cancelled due to lack of security.
Once again, we ask Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza.
Once again, we call for health care to be protected, and not militarized. Once again, we call for the release of hostages. And once again, we call for an immediate ceasefire.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said that she will visit the Middle East on Sunday. It will be her seventh visit since the 7 October attack inside southern Israel by Hamas.
Summary
It has gone 5.20pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 6.20pm in Sana’a. Here is a recap of the latest developments:
The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. Details of the resolution, which calls for “an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza, were disclosed by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as he toured the Middle East.
EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day meeting during which they discussed the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs said the lack of food and medicines in Gaza was “a failure of humanity” and Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, called for “an immediate pause in the fighting”.
Officials from 36 countries and UN agencies gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to discuss how to expedite aid to Palestinians in Gaza via a sea route launched last week. It was attended by Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, as well as Curtis Ried, chief of staff of the US national security council.
A second ship, The Jennifer, capable of transporting up to 600 tons, will ply the newly inaugurated sea corridor connecting Cyprus with Gaza as soon as weather conditions allow. “It will go either at the end of this week or the beginning of next due to weather conditions,” Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian of the second aid mission. “Currently there are about 240 tons [of aid] on board but loading will continue,” he said.
Blinken on Thursday discussed with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire for at least six weeks and the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Blinken was in Egypt after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier. He also discussed with Sisi the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.
Satellite images analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) showed that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Khan Younis City had been hit “particularly hard”, it said, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.
Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned. Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had killed more than 50 Palestinian gunmen over the past day in fighting around the Gaza Strip’s al-Shifa hospital, taking the number of fighters killed around the complex to 140 since it launched a raid on the complex on Monday. The military said it was continuing with its “precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital”.
Hamas condemned Israeli “crimes” at al-Shifa hospital. It also denied that the hospital harboured militants and said those killed by the military were injured patients and displaced people. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 70 people had been killed in Gaza overnight.
The occupied West Bank faced a “particularly violent” night on Wednesday into Thursday morning, said Al Jazeera journalist Laura Khan reporting from the area. She said the Israeli army had raided Tulkarem at dawn, an Israeli drone strike in Jenin had killed four men and in the south of Hebron soldiers had shot a man in the leg after he “tried to carry out a stabbing attack”. Khan also said “In Nablus, a witness account described how one man had his phone confiscated by an Israeli soldier and was brutally beaten for an hour, mostly in his face.” The Guardian was been unable to verify these incidents.
The death toll rose to four on Thursday in an Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. Two of the four Palestinians were killed by an airstrike and two by live bullets, the PRCS said.
The military told AFP on Thursday that it had been carrying out an operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, which adjoins the town of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank. “During the operation, an aircraft struck two terrorists who posed an immediate threat to the forces,” the Israeli army said. In total, nine Palestinians were killed in less than 24 hours in the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
25 Palestinians, including two children, were detained overnight by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, Wafa said, citing the Palestinian prisoner society.
Arab ministers held talks with a Palestinian official in Cairo on Thursday to discuss efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and were due to meet Blinken, who is seeking to secure a ceasefire of at least six weeks.
65 Palestinians were killed 92 were injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, according to the latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. According to the statement, at least 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the US, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, describing the city packed with refugees as a final Hamas bastion harbouring a quarter of the group’s fighters. Strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer made the comments on the Call Me Back with Dan Senor podcast.
A merchant vessel reported shots from a skiff approximately 109 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Nishtun, British security firm Ambrey said on Thursday. No damage or injuries were reported.
A burning object was thrown at the Israeli embassy in The Hague on Thursday morning. Police in the Netherlands said they had arrested a suspect and that nobody was injured.
Updated
Arab ministers held talks with a Palestinian official in Cairo on Thursday to discuss efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and were due to meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who is seeking to secure a ceasefire of at least six weeks, reports Reuters.
The ministers met with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee general secretary Hussein al-Sheikh to discuss “efforts to stop the Israeli war against Gaza, the inevitability of achieving a ceasefire, and full access to aid,” the Egyptian foreign ministry’s spokesperson said.
Blinken was also due to meet with Sheikh – a confidant of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and an intermediary in contacts with Israel – along with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates’ state minister for international cooperation, according to an Egyptian foreign ministry note, said Reuters.
Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control of the occupied West Bank, could play a role in administering Gaza once fighting ends, though Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed strong opposition.
Blinken had already met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire in the war, now in its sixth month, and the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
They also discussed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.
Blinken had also met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Lisa O’Carroll has also written about comments by Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, who has called for “an immediate pause in the fighting”. Rutte said this would allow for more aid to get into Gaza and be distributed, and also to “get the hostages released.” You can read more on the European live blog here.
Josep Borell calls Gaza situation 'a failure of humanity' at EU leaders summit
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll is in Brussels and reporting from the EU leaders summit. She has been providign updates for the European live blog on comments made by Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs. She writes:
The lack of food and medicines in Gaza is “a failure of humanity” Josep Borrell has said on arrival to the EU leaders summit.
“What is happening today in Gaza is the failure of humanity, it is not a humanitarian crisis, it is the failure of humanity, it is not an earthquake, it is not a flood, it is bombing.”
“The only way you can stop the humanitarian crisis, human crisis is Israel respecting more civilians and allowing more support into Gaza.”
Police have been accused of suppressing legitimate protest after a woman was arrested for chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and given bail conditions banning her from Manchester city centre or from being in a group of more than three people.
Masa Khawaja, 26, from Lancashire, was arrested for the chant outside the offices of BNY Mellon in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, during a demonstration against the bank’s investment of more than £10m in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The meaning of the chant is contested, with many criticising it as an antisemitic demand for the destruction of the state of Israel. In October, the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, wrote to chief constables in England and Wales asking them to consider whether it might be an offence “in certain contexts”. Others argue that it is simply a plea for a free Palestinian state.
You can read the full piece by the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent, Haroon Siddique, here:
Dutch police said on Thursday they had arrested someone suspected of throwing a burning object at Israel’s embassy in The Hague, which is under heavy security amid the war in Gaza.
“Around 10:50 am someone threw a burning object … towards the Israeli embassy,” police said, reports AFP. “We have arrested one suspect. No one was injured. We are investigating and there is a large barrier around the embassy.”
Security has been stepped up around Israeli embassies across the world as the country’s military presses an offensive in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attacks.
“It is unacceptable that such an attack can take place in the Netherlands. Fortunately, no injuries were reported,” said the embassy in a statement on X.
It added: “This shows the dangerous consequences of the worrying trend of increasing hatred and incitement. This hatred cannot be tolerated.”
In February, there was a bomb scare at the official residence of the Israeli ambassador in The Hague. Police cordoned off the area but found no explosives, say AFP.
At the time, authorities in The Hague had imposed emergency security measures around the Israeli embassy in response to an unspecified threat.
In January, the bomb squad in Sweden destroyed a “live” device at Israel’s embassy in Stockholm, something authorities described as a potential “terrorist crime”.
The CIDI association, which fights against antisemitism in the Netherlands, described Thursday’s attack as “another step in a sliding scale of hatred and violence against the Jewish state”.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has arrived in Cairo for ministerial meetings regarding developments in Palestinian territories, Reuters reports the state news agency said on Thursday.
US has called for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza with draft UN resolution
The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
After the declaration of imminent famine in parts of Gaza by a UN panel of experts earlier this week, the Biden administration has been ramping up efforts to call at least a temporary halt to the fighting, on top of warning Israel against launching a ground attack against Rafah in southern Gaza.
Details of the new draft resolution were revealed as the UN released an analysis of satellite imagery showing that 35% of buildings in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed during Israel’s offensive, which has claimed almost 32,000 Palestinian lives.
The US has blocked previous attempts to pass a ceasefire resolution, and the new draft marks a significant step in its approach to the conflict.
Details of the resolution, which calls for “an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza, were disclosed by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as he toured the Middle East.
Read more here: US calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza with draft UN resolution
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza sent to us over the news wires.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, increasing to nine the number of Palestinians killed in the territory over 24 hours, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Security sources told Wafa that one of those killed was Mohammad Salhiya, 18, from Al-Am’ari camp. He was killed at dawn.
South of Bethlehem, Israeli forces shot dead a 63-year-old Palestinian near El’azar.
Reuters reports the Israeli military said soldiers had fired shots towards “a Palestinian who aroused their suspicion at the El’azar junction”.
“A hit was identified and he was later pronounced dead,” it said, adding that military police had opened an investigation into the incident.
The Times of Israel reported that the 63-year-old man had his hands in the air when he was shot.
25 Palestinians, including two children, were detained overnight by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, Wafa said, citing the Palestinian prisoner society. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Large crowds have gathered in Jenin for the funerals of three people killed in a vehicle in an Israeli drone strike last night. Palestinians in Jenin have called for today to be a strike in protest.
Israeli forces also killed four Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm overnight.
A burning object was thrown at the Israeli embassy in The Hague on Thursday morning. Police in the Netherlands say they have arrested a suspect.
Reuters reports the police said on social media that nobody was injured.
We have learned more about the second aid mission expected to take place along the newly inaugurated sea corridor connecting Cyprus with Gaza.
A second ship, The Jennifer, capable of transporting up to 600 tons, will ply the route as soon as weather conditions allow.
“It will go either at the end of this week or the beginning of next due to weather conditions,” Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian. “Currently there are about 240 tons [of aid] on board but loading will continue,” he said.
It is expected that about 300 tons of food, fresh water and medicines will ultimately be loaded on to The Jennifer because the vessel will once again tow the barge that made the maiden voyage to Gaza last week.
The barge, which will also be carrying aid, is moored in the port of Larnaca, the distribution point for the aid initiative.
“They had to bring the barge back [to Larnaca] for repairs,” Gotsis explained. “It can only sail in winds of up to five Beaufort and when waters are calm. When it returns [to Gaza] it will act as an intermediate platform before a [permanent] pier is constructed. Pallets will be unloaded on to the barge before they are transferred to the shore on smaller boats.”
In a letter made public yesterday to the Mediterranean island’s president Nikos Christodoulides, president Joe Biden reiterated that he had instructed the US military to establish a temporary dock on the coast of Gaza to facilitate and enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid intended for its civilian population.
The pier’s construction, however, is not expected to be completed for several months yet.
Thursday’s meeting in Larnaca of 35 senior officials, including the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates which has helped coordinate the aid mission, is expected to be instrumental in deciding how aid deliveries to the besieged territory can be both accelerated and augmented via the maritime route.
Israel determined to take Rafah even if it 'leads to potential breach with the US', says senior Israeli official
Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the US, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, describing the city packed with refugees as a final Hamas bastion harbouring a quarter of the group’s fighters, reports Reuters.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to ensure a civilian evacuation and humanitarian aid – measures that top Israeli aides are due to discuss in the White House in the coming days, at the behest of US president Joe Biden.
“We’re quite confident that we can do this in a way that would be effective – not only militarily, but also on the humanitarian side. And they have less confidence that we can do it,” one of those Israeli envoys, strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, said on the Call Me Back with Dan Senor podcast.
According to Reuters, Dermer, who is a former ambassador to the US, said Israel would hear out US ideas for Rafah, but the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt would be taken whether or not the allies reach agreement:
It will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone. Even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the US, we’re going to fight until the battle’s won … and that’s why the determination to take them [Hamas] out is so strong, even if it leads to a potential breach with the US.”
Dermer said there were four intact Hamas battalions in Rafah, bolstered by fighters who had retreated from other parts of Gaza, amounting to 25% of the group’s prewar strength.
“We’re not going to leave a quarter of them in place,” he said. “We’re going into Rafah because we have to … And I think what people don’t understand is that 7 October is an existential moment for Israel.”
Hamas says those killed at al-Shifa hospital by Israeli military were patients and displaced people
Near al-Shifa hospital, residents have told Reuters via a chat app that the Israeli army had blown up houses close by as buildings in the hospital complex burned.
Rabah, a father of five, said the area was a war zone, with people trapped inside their houses amid clashes in the streets. “Israel sent tanks back into the heart of Gaza City to destroy what is left of its homes and roads. All of that is happening in the sight of the one-eyed world,” he told Reuters.
Israel said its troops had killed more than 50 Hamas gunmen over the previous day, taking the number of fighters killed around the hospital to 140, along with two Israeli soldiers.
Hamas has denied that the hospital harboured militants and said those killed were injured patients and displaced people.
Israel said it had located “terrorist” infrastructure and weapons in and around the facility, showing images of AK-47 automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other artillery, reports Reuters.
Military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said “many Hamas terrorists – operatives and senior ones” had been hiding in the hospital along with Islamic Jihad militants.
“When we entered the hospital, we were finding terrorists fighting against us here in this area,” he said.
According to Reuters, video footage released by Hamas showed its militants outside the al-Shifa compound, carrying weapons and firing on Israeli tanks in streets reduced to rubble. The position of the buildings and outline matched satellite imagery checked by Reuters, the news agency said.
Updated
Today’s The Long Read is on Hamas. Joshua Leifer writes: “How Israeli, Palestinian and US political actors understand Hamas is not merely a theoretical question – it will determine what kind of agreement can be reached to end the current war, and what the future of Gaza will look like.”
You can read the full piece here:
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire for at least six weeks and the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken is in Egypt after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier, as part of his latest Middle East tour. He also discussed with Sisi the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel, reports Reuters.
A merchant vessel reported shots from a skiff approximately 109 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Nishtun, British security firm Ambrey said on Thursday, reports Reuters.
Four armed people on a skiff approached the vessel and reportedly shot at the merchant vessel, and a private armed security team returned fire, Ambrey added.
The vessel reportedly increased speed and was no longer under threat by the skiff, with no damage or injuries reported, Ambrey said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency reported the same incident on Thursday.
UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 056 SUSPICIOUS APPROACHhttps://t.co/auxAKdReZU#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/48AukSvvGc
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) March 21, 2024
Yemen’s Houthis have threatened to expand their operations against shipping to the Indian Ocean region.
Somali pirates also operate in the Indian Ocean region, taking advantage of the distraction provided by Houthi strikes to the north, with more than 20 attempted hijackings since November, according to five industry representatives say Reuters.
Satellite images show 35% of Gaza's building destroyed, UN says
Satellite images analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) show that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, reports Reuters.
The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has released an updated assessment of the damage inflicted on buildings in the Gaza Strip.
— UNOSAT (@UNOSAT) March 21, 2024
35% of Gaza Strip Structures were damaged since the outburst of the conflict.
Read our latest press release: https://t.co/t33jLBJJ4Y pic.twitter.com/1lvR4Rw5Bz
In its assessment, UNOSAT used high-resolution satellite images collected on 29 February and compared them with images taken before and after the start of the latest conflict. It found that 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip – 88,868 structures – had been damaged or destroyed.
Among these, it identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.
This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged structures compared to the previous assessment it did based on images taken in January that showed 30% of all buildings had been damaged or destroyed, UNOSAT said.
“The governorates of Khan Younis and Gaza have experienced the most significant rise in damage, with Khan Younis seeing 12,279 additional damaged structures and Gaza experiencing 2,010,” UNOSAT said. Khan Younis City has been hit “particularly hard”, it said, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.
Updated
Officials from 36 countries and UN agencies gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to discuss how to expedite aid to Palestinians in Gaza via a sea route launched last week.
According to Reuters, Thursday’s gathering is being attended by Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, as well as Curtis Ried, chief of staff of the US national security council.
As famine looms over Gaza, agencies are increasingly looking for alternative routes to get aid in other than land crossings. But lack of infrastructure is an issue; the World Central Kitchen which dispatched aid from Cyprus last week made a landing jetty out of rubble, while the US has also announced plans to create a floating pier.
Under an agreement hammered out with Israel, cargoes can undergo security inspections in Cyprus by a team including Israel, eliminating the need for screenings at its final offloading point to remove potential hold-ups in aid deliveries, reports Reuters.
One vessel left Cyprus last week and distributed aid in Gaza, while another two are expected to depart in coming days, subject to weather conditions.
“We are discussing how we can max up operational capacity both in terms of departure and means of transport and also in relation to the reception and distribution methodology,” said Constantinos Kombos, Cyprus’s foreign minister.
Delegates would also discuss the creation of a fund to coordinate operational activities of the initiative, Kombos said, although he clarified it was not a donor’s conference, say Reuters.
Asked how many vessels could be departing Cyprus with aid once the initiative is at full operational capacity, Kombos said “as many as possible”.
“We have to remember there are limitations in terms of the reception and distribution and the whole point is not to just stockpile aid here but about a quick turnaround so we are as efficient as possible.”
EU leaders have gathered today in Brussels for a two-day meeting during which they will discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the UN secretary general António Guterres will join the leaders at the start of their two-day meeting, in part to encourage some member countries to resume funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency (Unrwa), the main provider of aid in Gaza.
Israeli allegations that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 Gaza staff members participated in the 7 October Hamas attacks in southern Israel, resulted in major donors to the UN agency suspending their funding. AFP report that more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450m (€413m/£353m), almost half its budget for 2024.
Early this month, the European Commission said it would pay €50m ($54m/£42m) to the agency after it agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists. Germany has not resumed funding.
The Israel-Hamas war has driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and UN officials say a quarter of the population is starving. The agency is the main supplier of food, water and shelter but is on the brink of financial collapse.
Concern is also mounting about an imminent Israeli ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt. It’s a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel can’t achieve its goal of “total victory” against Hamas without going into Rafah.
In a draft of their summit statement, seen by the AP, the leaders are set to underline that such an operation “would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
Four killed so far in Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, says the PRCS
The death toll rose to four on Thursday in an Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.
“Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nur Shams camp,” the group said on X, adding his death brought the toll to four.
Two of the four Palestinians were killed by an airstrike and two by live bullets, the Red Crescent said.
🚨Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Nour Shams camp, Tulkarem. This brings the total number of martyrs to 4 since the Israeli occupation forces raided the camp yesterday.…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 21, 2024
Israeli forces involved in the operation withdrew from the camp in the morning, AFP journalists reported. The Israeli army told AFP it was checking the death toll.
The military told AFP on Thursday that it had been carrying out an operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, which adjoins the town of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.
“During the operation, an aircraft struck two terrorists who posed an immediate threat to the forces,” the Israeli army said.
In total, eight Palestinians were killed in less than 24 hours in the West Bank, reports AFP.
Three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, were killed late on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a car in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in the northern West Bank.
One Palestinian was killed by gunfire in the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.
According to the Palestinian Authority, more than 430 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the war began.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
More than 140 militants killed in raid on al-Shifa medical centre since Monday, says Israeli military
More than 140 militants have been killed in four days of fighting in and around Gaza’s largest hospital, where the Israeli army’s operation is still under way, the military said on Thursday reports AFP.
Israel launched a raid on al-Shifa medical centre on Monday, targeting what it said were senior Hamas militants with tank fire and airstrikes.
Combat has raged for days in and around the sprawling hospital complex crowded with patients and displaced people. A previous raid on the complex in November triggered international outrage.
“Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital,” the army said, referring to fighting since Monday.
The military added that it was “continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital area”, and that “over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire”.
Updated
65 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 65 Palestinians were killed and 92 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The writers’ group PEN America has offered an olive branch to a group of prominent authors and literary figures who withdrew from its flagship World Voices festival in protest at its perceived stance over the Israel-Gaza war.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, the organization said it wants to meet with the authors and others in a public forum to foster a better understanding of its position and discuss “sharply divergent views on questions of deep consequence”.
It says it is also making “a substantial financial contribution”, believed to be about $100,000, to the Netherlands-based PEN emergency fund for distribution to Palestinian writers in what it asserts is an “expansion of existing support”.
A lack of backing for writers in Gaza was one of the allegations made by the authors last week in a highly critical letter to the literary freedom advocacy organisation.
You can read Richard Luscombe’s full piece here:
Updated
Al Jazeera journalist Laura Khan, reporting from the occupied West Bank, has reported a “particularly violent” night there on Wednesday into Thursday morning.
Khan writes:
We’re seeing daily overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, but on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, it was particularly violent.
The city of Tulkarem had a particularly violent night. The Israeli army raided at dawn and started to tear up infrastructure, including roads. Witnesses say it is the most brutally violent night they’ve ever had in terms of the destruction they’ve seen around them.”
She also said an Israeli drone strike in Jenin had killed four men, while in the south of Hebron soldiers had shot a man in the leg after he “tried to carry out a stabbing attack”.
Khan also writes: “In Nablus, a witness account described how one man had his phone confiscated by an Israeli soldier and was brutally beaten for an hour, mostly in his face.”
The Guardian has been unable to verify these incidents.
AFP also reports that two Palestinians were killed in an airstrike who the Israeli military said had posed a threat to its troops during an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank’s northwest early on Thursday.
Updated
Saudi Arabia pledges $40m to Unrwa as Blinken arrives in Riyadh
AFP reports that Riyadh announced, as Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia, that it would donate $40m to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which has been central to aid operations in Gaza but has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini has warned that “siege, hunger and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza”.
World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip
Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned.
Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.
The new data from the Bank came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel to give immediate and unconditional access to Gaza for aid via land.
“I call on the Israeli authorities to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian routes throughout Gaza,” he said before a meeting with the European Commission’s president in Brussels.
The Bank’s regular update found that of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, there were 1.1 million in the highest risk category – people in catastrophe – which meant risk of acute malnutrition or death. A further 854,000 (38%) were in the next category down – people in emergency – where immediate action was needed to save lives. The remaining 12% were in the third category: people in crisis. Nobody in Gaza was placed in the bottom two categories – people stressed or people in food security.
“Household surveys reveal alarming trends, with virtually all households skipping meals daily and a significant portion of children under two suffering from acute malnutrition,” the report said.
You can read the full article by Larry Elliott and Lisa O’Carroll here:
Israeli diplomats pre-emptively attack findings of Unrwa inquiries
Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.
Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January after the Israeli allegations. Parallel to the OIOS inquiry, a broader review of Unrwa’s activities and neutrality is under way, led by a former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and supported by three Nordic research organisations.
The Colonna review was commissioned by Guterres in January, before the Israeli allegations were made. The review group, which presented its interim findings on Tuesday, found that “Unrwa has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality.”
But the UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino said investigators had “also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed”.
You can read the full piece by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here:
Mediators met for a third day of talks in Qatar on Wednesday in a renewed effort to secure a ceasefire but with little indication of an imminent agreement, reports AFP.
The plan being discussed in Qatar would temporarily halt the fighting as Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of relief supplies to Gaza is stepped up.
According to AFP, senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Israel’s response to the group’s latest proposal was “largely negative … and constitutes a step backwards”.
Further on the fighting at al-Shifa hospital, AFP have the following report:
The latest fighting has included an Israeli assault on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, a vast complex crowded with patients and people seeking refuge, where Israel says Palestinian militants are holed up.
The Israeli army said “over 300 suspects” had been apprehended in the hospital raid that began on Monday, including “dozens of senior terrorists and those with key positions”.
Israel said its forces have “killed approximately 90 terrorists” since the start of the raid, and army chief Herzi Halevi said the objective was “not to allow such a place to be controlled” by Hamas.
Hamas condemned Israeli “crimes” at al-Shifa “for the third day in a row, the executions of dozens of displaced persons, patients and staff”.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 70 people had been killed in Gaza overnight.
50 Palestinian gunmen killed in fighting at Gaza's Shifa hospital, say Israeli army
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed more than 50 Palestinian gunmen over the past day in fighting around the Gaza Strip’s al-Shifa hospital, reports Reuters.
The military said it was continuing with its “precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital.”
“Over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire, and terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were located. Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital,” it said.
Updated
US unveils draft UN resolution seeking immediate Gaza ceasefire
The US has circulated a draft UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in the Gaza Strip, secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
The diplomat made his announcement while on a tour of the Middle East that will include a stop in Israel, reports the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Key Israel backer the US has vetoed previous UN security council votes on the nearly six-month war, objecting as recently as in February to the use of the term “immediate” in a draft submitted by Algeria.
In recent weeks, however, Washington has upped the pressure on its ally, while insisting that Hamas militants must immediately release the hostages seized by militants during its 7 October attacks on Israel.
“Well, in fact, we actually have a resolution that we put forward right now that’s before the UN security council that does call for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages, and we hope very much that countries will support that,” Blinken said in Saudi Arabia.
“I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal,” he told Saudi media outlet Al Hadath on Wednesday.
“Of course, we stand with Israel and its right to defend itself … but at the same time, it’s imperative that the civilians who are in harm’s way and who are suffering so terribly – that we focus on them, that we make them a priority, protecting the civilians, getting them humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said.
US officials had been negotiating an alternative text since blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza at the end of February.
That alternative, focusing on support for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of hostages, had little chance winning approval, according to diplomatic sources.
A new version, seen by AFP, stresses “the need for an immediate and durable ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, enable the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, and alleviate suffering … in conjunction with the release of hostages still held”. No vote has yet been scheduled on this text.
Blinken met Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and then held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman soon after landing in the kingdom on Wednesday on the first leg of a regional tour that will include Egypt on Thursday and then Israel on Friday.
Opening summary
It has gone 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
The US has circulated a draft UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in Gaza, secretary of state Antony Blinken has said.
“We hope very much that countries will support that,” Blinken said while in Saudi Arabia for talks on the war between Israel and Hamas.
The US, Israel’s main backer, had previously used its UN security council veto to block the world body from calling for an immediate ceasefire.
More on that in a moment, but first here is a summary of the other main events:
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.
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.
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.
Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general. Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.
Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned. Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.
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.
