Israeli tanks and warplanes reportedly targeted civilians waiting for aid, killing at least 77 and wounding hundreds. Meanwhile, international aid groups say airdrops of aid are so “negligible” that they “perpetuate the overall blockade strategy.” For more details, log into Mondoweiss.net.
Casualties
- 30,035+ killed* and at least 70,457 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 380+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 582 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on the Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
Key Developments
- Journalist says family killed in Israeli bombardment in Gaza City.
- Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is out of service.
- Fire broke out at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Wednesday, reported Al Jazeera.
- Northern Gaza’s last functional hospital, Al-Awda, shuts down, reports Wafa.
- Woman killed, daughter wounded in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, according to MTV Lebanon.
- PRCS registers concern for the well-being of 7 detained medics.
- Over 100,000 people vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan primary over Biden Gaza policy.
- UN: Gaza water supply at only 7 percent of pre-October levels.
- UN: An estimated 339 hectares (838 acres) of greenhouses have been destroyed.
- Gaza Health Ministry: seven children died of malnutrition on Wednesday.
- Rights group: UK arms transfers to Israel may violate international law.
- Married couple killed in Israeli attacks on south Lebanon.
- Israeli war cabinet backtracks on al-Aqsa Mosque restrictions, reports Channel 12, as cited by Al Jazeera.
- Israeli minister says no normalization with Saudi Arabia if it means Palestinian state, reports Al Jazeera.
- Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian youth at a checkpoint in Nablus, reports Wafa.
- Refugees International chief: Humanitarian airdrops help Israel’s “blockade strategy.”
- Amnesty chief urges European Union to fund UNRWA “without delay.”
- Gaza Ministry of Health: Israeli forces kill at least 77 Palestinians waiting for food aid near Gaza City.
- Israeli conscientious objector Tal Mitnick was sentenced to a third prison term.
- Armed, masked men in Gaza have started patrols to stop traders profiteering in Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter from Israel’s air and ground campaign, a member of the vigilante group said.
- The mounting death toll from Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip is a concrete, daily reality for Ibrahim Ahmed: instead of building houses as he did before the war, he digs graves.
| Gaza Health Ministry Reports Over Thirty Thousand People Have Died in Enclave Since October 7. The health ministry, which is run by Palestinian militant group Hamas, does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its death count. An article in the British medical journalThe Lancet looking at the first weeks of mortality reports found the deaths were among population groups “that are likely to be largely civilian.” The new milestone suggests around one of every seventy-three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has been killed (NYT). Palestinian territories/Russia: Russia invited (CNN) all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, to a meeting in Moscow today to discuss governance reform in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian Authority Foreign Affairs Minister Riyadh al-Maliki said yesterday that he did not expect (Al Jazeera) “miracles” from today’s meeting. |
Israeli massacre of starving civilians. On Thursday, Israeli forces attacked starving Palestinians waiting for food aid near Gaza City, killing at least 77 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Bodies were seen on the ground after the attack, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the danger of further Israeli strikes, reported Al Jazeera.
One man said he had been waiting for the aid to arrive since Tuesday.
“At about 4:30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us as if it were a trap,” the man recounted to Quds News Network, as cited by Al Jazeera.
“As the Israeli military opened fire on the aid seekers, Israeli tanks advanced and ran over many of the dead and injured bodies in the southwestern parts of Gaza City. It is a massacre, on top of the starvation threatening citizens in Gaza,” Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul said.
Over 250 Palestinians were wounded in the attack, the majority of whom have been taken to al-Shifa Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“Some of the others are being rushed to the Ahli and Jordanian hospitals. The [death toll] will rise. Hospitals are no longer able to accommodate the huge number of patients because they lack fuel, let alone medicine. Hospitals have also run out of blood,” al-Goul added.
- Armed, masked men in Gaza have started patrols to stop traders profiteering in Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter from Israel’s air and ground campaign, a member of the vigilante group said.
- The mounting death toll from Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip is a concrete, daily reality for Ibrahim Ahmed: instead of building houses as he did before the war, he digs graves.
Israel’s Genocide War in Gaza Continues
Parties negotiating a possible ceasefire in Gaza gave mixed signals yesterday, with Hamas’s political leader saying the group was ready to keep fighting Israel, while Egypt’s president said a truce could be reached “in the next few days.” The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said the group was open to mediated talks with Israel but that “any flexibility we show in the negotiation process is a commitment to protecting the blood of our people, matched by a readiness to defend them.” President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, which is brokering the agreement along with Qatar and the United States, offered a more optimistic view, saying, “God willing, in the next few days, we will reach a cease-fire agreement.” In public, however, Hamas and Israel are not signaling any breakthrough. Hwaida Saad and Shashank Bengali report for the New York Times.
Haniyeh yesterday called on Palestinians in Jerusalem to defy Israeli restrictions and march to the Aqsa mosque to pray at the start of Ramadan, creating the prospect of clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to comment last night, but said, “I would just say, as it pertains to Al Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice and that’ll continue to be our position.”
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out on Oct. 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said today. It added that at least six children have died in recent days as a result of dehydration and malnutrition in Gazan medical facilities.
Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said yesterday he believes Hamas understands why it should not be part of a new government in the Palestinian territories. Speaking a day before Hamas and the Fatah political faction that dominates the PA were set to meet in Moscow, Maliki said that a “technocratic government” is needed in the Palestinian territories, adding that “the time now is not for a national coalition government.” AFP and Times of Israel reports.
An apparent Israeli strike on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City today killed at least 70 people and wounded dozens, according to local health officials. Wafaa Shurafa and Kareem Chehayeb report for AP News.
Israel still has not provided evidence to support its allegations that members of the main U.N. aid agency in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said yesterday. “To my knowledge, up to today, there (hasn’t) been any new information transmitted to UNRWA and to the United Nations,” Philippe Lazzarini said. Richard Roth and Amy Cassidy report for CNN.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
New Zealand’s government designated all of Hamas as a “terrorist entity” today, broadening its policy on the Islamist group. It now considers the political wing of Hamas a “terrorist entity” after designating the group’s military wing a “terrorist entity” in 2010. “What happened on 7 October reinforces we can no longer distinguish between the military and political wings of Hamas,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. Michael Rios and Akanksha Sharma report for CNN.
Austria’s foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg today urged Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah against escalating the conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a fighting pause in Gaza. Speaking after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut, Schallenberg said, “Everybody is asked not to escalate and it always takes two sides.” Bassem Mroue reports for AP News.
Canada is working to airdrop humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as possible, a cabinet minister said yesterday. The announcement follows Canadian International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen saying that Ottawa was exploring new options to deliver aid. AP News reports.
U.S. RESPONSE
The White House is exploring the possibility of airdropping aid from U.S. military planes into Gaza as land deliveries become increasingly difficult, four U.S. officials told Axios. That the Biden administration is considering such a move underscores concern about the worsening humanitarian crises in Gaza. “The situation is really bad. We are unable to get enough aid [in] by truck so we need desperate measures like airdrops,” one U.S. official said. According to the U.N., the amount of aid reaching Gaza fell by half this month compared to January.
U.S. officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon in the coming months if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel, according to senior Biden administration officials and officials familiar with the intelligence. “We are operating on the assumption that an Israeli military operation is in the coming months,” one senior official said. “Not necessarily imminently in the next few weeks but perhaps later this spring. An Israeli military operation is a distinct possibility.” Alex Marquardt reports for CNN.
IRAN-BACKED MILITANTS
Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli strikes in the vicinity of Damascus, state media said yesterday. Pro-Iranian Lebanese television al Maydeen said a large explosion was heard in the heavily fortified Sayeda Zainab neighborhood of the Syrian capital, where a major Shi’ite shrine is located, but it gave no further details. The Israeli military declined to comment. Reuters reports.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said fighter jets carried out strikes on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including rocket launchers. The targets in Jabal Blat included a complex where members of the militant group were gathered and several rocket launchers, according to the IDF, adding that it shelled rocket launch sites after attacks this morning on the Adamit and Shlomi communities in northern Israel. Emanuel Fabian reports for the Times of Israel.