Israel delegation 'to visit Cairo', more aid dropped on Gaza

This live blog on Israel's war on Gaza has now ended. Thanks for following.

The 'Islamic Resistance in Iraq' announced that it had targeted a power station at Haifa Airport in northern Israel using drones, stressing that it would continue to "strike enemy strongholds."

It was not clear if the attack was successful.

A video widely shared on social media alleged to be from the attack, but this could not be verified by The New Arab. Some reports said the video was from a fireworks factory explosion in Michigan.

Internet connections have gradually returned to southern and central parts of the Gaza Strip after a brief outage late on Tuesday, Palestinian media said.

Palestinian journalist Mohammad Salama has been killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the local government’s media office announced on Tuesday.

Salama, who died after a house he was in was hit, worked at Al-Aqsa TV. It was not clear if it was his residence, or how many others died in the strike.

His death raises the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7 to 133, the government’s media office said.

عاجل| تغطية صحفية: ارتقاء الصحفي ومذيع قناة الأقصى محمد سلامة بقصف الاحتلال على دير البلح وسط قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/GXgoG1n4p5

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) March 5, 2024

Pro-Palestinian and human rights advocates in Canada on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop it from allowing companies to export military goods and technology to Israel.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court, argues that Canadian laws prevent military exports to Israel because there is "substantial risk" they could be used to violate international law and commit serious acts of violence against women and children, according to a statement from the applicants.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met Tuesday and discussed a potential ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, the U.S. said in a statement.

Sullivan and Al Thani underscored that the release of hostages would result in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over at least 6 weeks, according to a White House statement.

The two agreed to stay in regular contact, the statement added.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Israeli settlers were one of the main obstacles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"One of the biggest obstacles to a solution are the actions of the usurpers, called settlers, who have invaded and stolen land that belonged to Palestinians," Erdogan said during a press conference with visiting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Erdogan also called for unrestrained access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, due to start this year on March 10 or 11.

"The demands of radical Israeli politicians to restrict the entry of Muslims... are totally absurd," he said. "The consequences of such a move would undoubtedly be serious."

"We're about to start the month of Ramadan," Abbas said. "It is well known that extremist settlers go to Al-Aqsa and carry out attacks there."

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis carried out a "qualitative military operation in which they targeted two U.S. warship destroyers in the Red Sea," the group's military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Tuesday.

The United Nations' food agency said it was "largely unsuccessful" in its attempt on Tuesday to resume deliveries to northern Gaza which is nearing famine.

In a statement, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it despatched a 14-truck food convoy to northern Gaza, but it was turned back by the Israeli army after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.

The trucks were rerouted and later stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking around 200 tons, the WFP said.

"Although today's convoy did not make it to the north to provide food to the people who are starving, WFP continues to explore every possible means to do so," WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said.

🆕 #Gaza: After a 14-truck convoy was turned away today, WFP food for 20,000 people was dropped into northern Gaza with support of the Jordanian Air Forces.

WFP is determined to do whatever it takes to reach people in need. ⚠️ But to avert famine, we must have access by road.

— World Food Programme (@WFP) March 5, 2024

The United States has no plans to send U.S. troops into Gaza to bolster efforts to distribute aid, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, remarks that appeared to play down the idea of a U.S.-military run port or other landing site for maritime aid distribution.

"At this time there are no plans to put U.S. forces on the ground in Gaza," Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, told a news conference.

Indirect talks on an end to hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border will begin during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which starts next week, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday.

Mikati told local broadcaster Al Jadeed that Lebanese officials were studying a verbal proposal suggested by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who was in Beirut on Monday to push a diplomatic solution to exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

The United States is looking at both military and commercial options to move humanitarian assistance into Gaza from sea routes, the White House said on Tuesday.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters the maritime route can move more volume of aid but it is more of a heavier lift logistically. Trucks are the best way, he said.

Global container shipping company MSC confirmed Tuesday one of its vessels was hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen, in an attack claimed by the country's Houthi rebels.

Geneva-based MSC said the Liberian-flagged container ship MSC Sky II was hit on Monday near Aden, causing a fire which has now been extinguished. There were no injuries.

"During her passage from Singapore to Djibouti, MSC Sky II was hit by a missile on March 4 at around 1320 GMT, 85 miles (135 kilometres) southeast of Aden and 170 miles (275 km) east-southeast of the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait," MSC said in a statement.

"The missile caused a small fire that has been extinguished while no crew were injured. She is currently continuing her journey to Djibouti and will arrive today for further assessment."

The MSC Sky II is nearly 184 metres long and 30 metres wide.

Israeli forces shot dead a 16 year-old Palestinian at a flashpoint road junction in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, claiming that he was behind a stabbing attack in which a soldier was severely injured.

The Israeli military said soldiers killed a Palestinian who carried out a stabbing attack in Huwara but gave no details. It said a soldier was seriously wounded in the incident and taken to hospital for treatment.

Palestinian health authorities said the person killed in the incident was a 16 year-old boy.

فدائي فلسطيني استل سكينه ونفذ عملية طعن في حوارة شمال الضفة الغربية ..

أسفر عن العملية : إصابة جندي بجروح متوسطة
والجنود فتحوا النار على منفذ العملية
الوضع الصحي للمنفذ غير معروف.. pic.twitter.com/t7sBAa1aYD

— ‏جَفرَا الحُب والثَورة 🇵🇸 𓂆 (@jafra_ps) March 5, 2024

Israel will allow as many Muslim worshippers to access Al-Aqsa mosque during the first week of Ramadan as in previous years, the prime minister's office said Tuesday.

"In the first week of Ramadan, worshippers will be allowed to enter the Temple Mount, in similar numbers to those in previous years," the statement said, using the Jewish term for the site, adding that there would be a "a situation assessment in terms of security and safety" every week.

A Lebanon-based Hamas official said on Tuesday that talks seeking a pause in its war with Israel cannot go on "indefinitely", after US President Joe Biden called on the group to accept a ceasefire deal.

"We will not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely while the aggression and the war of starvation against our people continues," Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.

Obstacles to a Gaza ceasefire are not insurmountable, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday, adding that in Washington's view it is possible to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday the continuing tension with Iran-backed Hezbollah at the border with Lebanon was moving the situation nearer to a military escalation.

"We are committed to the diplomatic process, however Hezbollah's aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon," Gallant said in a statement after meeting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who is seeking a mediated end to that conflict.

An exchange of prisoners can only happen after a ceasefire takes place, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan says.

"We say to Washington, what is more important than sending aid [to Gaza] is stopping its supply of weapons to Israel," he tells a press conference in Beirut.

(Reuters)

US President Joe Biden warns of a "very dangerous" situation if Israel and Hamas fail to reach a Gaza ceasefire by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"If we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous," Biden told reporters, adding that there were "no excuses" for Israel not to allow more relief supplies into the territory.

Ramadan will start on 10 or 11 March, depending on the lunar calendar.

The number of people killed in Houla, a town in south Lebanon, has risen to four, a civil defence source tells The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

A house in the town was struck by Israeli forces.

An Israeli strike killed a mother, father and their son in the southern Lebanese town of Houla on Tuesday, the mayor Shakib Koteish tells Reuters.

"It was a three floor house, now it's all the way collapsed and the rescue workers are still working to see who is left under it," he says.

(Reuters)

Hamas's delegation in Cairo will leave today after participating in three days of negotiations on reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, a source in the Palestinian group tells The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

An Israeli delegation is scheduled to arrive tomorrow to give Tel Aviv's position on what Hamas put forward, an Egyptian source says.

Egyptian sources familiar with Cairo's efforts on the ceasefire negotiations indicate Egypt has not yet definitively announced the end of the current round of negotiations, saying there is still a chance to reach an agreement before Ramadan begins.

Hamas's delegation is set to return to the Egyptian capital on Thursday, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's source in the group says.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept an "immediate ceasefire" with Israel as the militants met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo.

"We have an opportunity for an immediate ceasefire that can bring hostages home, that can dramatically increase the amount of humanitarian assistance getting to Palestinians who so desperately need it, and can also set the conditions for an enduring resolution," Blinken said as he met the Qatari prime minister in Washington.

"It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage in that ceasefire."

The US, which is both Israel's closest ally and a sponsor of the ceasefire talks, has said an Israeli-approved deal is already on the table and it is up to Hamas to accept it.

Hamas disputes this account as an attempt to deflect blame from Israel if the talks collapse with no deal.

Egyptian security sources said US, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators were seeking to overcome this difference by offering separate guarantees to Hamas of peace talks to end the war.

Israel says it is interested only in a temporary truce during which more hostages would be freed. Hamas says it wants any deal to lead to a permanent end to hostilities.

Blinken also called on Israel to allow more aid into war-battered Gaza, where warnings have grown of famine and the United States has resorted to aid airdrops.

"Israel has to maximise every possible means, every possible method, of getting assistance to people who need it," Blinken said.

He called for Israel to open more crossings into Gaza and to ensure that aid can go to people in need.

"We will continue to press that every single day because the situation as it stands is simply not acceptable," Blinken said.

(AFP, Reuters)

Leaders from the Palestinian militant group Hamas were expected to hold more talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators over the prospects of reaching a ceasefire deal, a Hamas official said on Tuesday.

(Reuters)

Israel did not participate in inspecting food assistance dropped on the Gaza Strip as part of a combined effort with Jordan on Saturday, the American Department of Defense said, according to Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.

"The goods are prepackaged foods that are inspected at the time they are processed and before delivery," the department said.

Eleven Palestinians have been arrested again by Israel after being freed under an agreement that saw them exchanged for hostages held in Gaza.

The swap took place during a truce that ran for seven days starting on 24 November.

Palestinian Prisoners' Club media officer Amani Sarahneh later added that nine of those rearrested were still being held, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reports.

The United Nations on Tuesday called on the international community to "flood" Gaza with aid amid reports that children are dying of starvation in the war-torn enclave.

"With children starting… to die from starvation, that should be an alarm like no other," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

The Gaza health ministry has said up to 15 children have died from starvation and dehydration with others ailing, and humanitarian agencies say the enclave faces a dire food crisis.

The World Health Organization reported "grim" findings and scenes of starving children after reaching two northern hospitals with aid last weekend for the first time since October.

Doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital, the only paediatrics hospital in northern Gaza, told the team that "at least 10 children had died due to starvation", Ahmed Dahir, who headed the mission, told a Geneva press briefing from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The health ministry has since reported that the number of child deaths at the hospital due to malnutrition and dehydration had risen to 15, with another six acutely malnourished infants at dire risk.

"If not now, when is the time to pull the stops, break the glass and flood Gaza with the aid that it needs?" Laerke asked.

"That is what we need to see happen."

The United States and Jordan carried out a new air drop of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Tuesday, delivering more than 36,800 meals to Palestinians, the US military said.

The Israeli war on Gaza, which is supported by the United States, has displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million people and led to acute shortages of food, water, and medicine.

(Reuters)

An estimated 8,000 patients need evacuating out of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, voicing frustration that few have so far been transferred outside the besieged territory.

The WHO said moving such patients out of Gaza would relieve some of the strain on the medics and hospitals that are struggling to keep functioning in a war zone.

"We estimate that 8,000 Gazans need to be referred outside Gaza," Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told a press briefing in Geneva via video-link from Jerusalem.

Of those, an estimated 6,000 are related to the conflict, including patients with multiple trauma injuries, burns and amputations, he said.

The other 2,000 are regular patients, he said, noting that before the war began, 50 to 100 patients a day were referred from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, of which around half were cancer patients.

Only 2,293 patients were referred outside Gaza for medical treatment between 7 October and 20 February.

Peeperkorn said the process involved not just the WHO but also the authorities in Gaza, Israel and Egypt, plus the hospital directors.

He said the WHO had been pushing for a streamlined medical evacuation system since November and "we don't understand… why is it essentially not happening".

He said Egypt, other Middle Eastern countries and some in Europe had offered to receive patients and their companions.

"We would like to see, and are pushing for, an organised, sustained medevac. First of all for the patients who need it, and deserve to get better treatment," said Peeperkorn.

"But it would also help to relieve some of the enormous stress these collapsing health services are under in Gaza."

India's embassy in Israel on Tuesday advised its nationals working in Israeli border areas to move to safer parts of the country.

The advisory comes a day after an anti-tank missile attack near Israel's border with Lebanon killed one foreign worker and seriously wounded two Indians.

(Reuters)

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, adding that a total of 97 people had died in the last 24 hours.

First responders with the civil defence circulated footage of rescuers pulling dead and wounded people from the rubble of a house, including a child with blood on his face who was not moving.

The nearby European Hospital said on Tuesday that it had received 17 bodies overnight.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement on Tuesday that it was carrying out targeted raids on militant infrastructure in Khan Younis while trying to evacuate civilians from the area.

Islamic Relief says families in Gaza preparing for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan are "on the verge of famine".

The aid organisation adds in its emailed statement that children are "now dying from starvation" as Israel "blocks food aid and fatally attacks civilians trying to reach food trucks".

Islamic Relief urges that an immediate ceasefire and a "massive increase" in aid are agreed for the beginning of Ramadan.

"Usually during Ramadan we gather in the mosques for night prayers," said a member of the organisation's staff in Gaza.

"Now most of the mosques have been destroyed. This year we'll have none of the usual food that we have for Ramadan. All we hope for Ramadan is for a ceasefire."

Islamic Relief says it "strongly condemns" attacks on worship sites belonging to all religions.

Belgium on Monday sent a military transport plane to join an international operation to drop aid in war-ravaged Gaza also involving the United States, France, and Jordan, officials said.

The aid was taken to Jordan, where Jordanian officials were to inspect it before seeking an Israeli green-light for an airdrop, which was to take place on Wednesday at the earliest, according to the Belgian defence ministry.

"We are not deciding when we go in. We are being told when we can go in and we will abide by that," said Colonel Bruno Beeckmans, the commander of the air base outside Brussels from where the aircraft took off.

"It's absolutely a no-go fly zone because it's a war zone. So we need to be precisely coordinated," he told AFP.

The military Airbus A400M transporter was to make another flight from Brussels to Jordan's Zarqa air base outside Amman, to take in more more aid and personnel for the drop.

Zarqa has been a hub for what Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said was a "humanitarian coalition for Palestine".

Jordan has conducted at least 16 air drops of aid into Gaza since the war broke out on 7 October. One was made with a French military plane.

US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday that she and President Joe Biden are in synch about Israel policy, after her blunt comments calling for a ceasefire and declaring a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza sparked questions about their positions.

During a trip to Alabama on Sunday, Harris urged Hamas to agree to a six-week ceasefire and said Israel must do more to let aid flow freely into Gaza, where conditions, she said, were "inhumane".

Biden has been a staunch ally of Israel and has not wavered in his support during Tel Aviv's war on Gaza.

He has been pushing for a six-week ceasefire to get aid into Gaza and hostages out of the enclave.

"The president and I have been aligned and consistent from the very beginning," Harris said when asked by a Reuters reporter whether there was any distance between her and Biden on the issue.

"Israel has a right to defend itself. Far too many Palestinian civilians, innocent civilians, have been killed. We need to get more aid in. We need to get the hostages out. And that remains our position."

(Reuters)

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says there have been 427 violations against its medical teams in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.

"Israeli occupation forces continue [their] violations of... IHL [international humanitarian law], which urges them to respect the Red Crescent emblem, and facilitate the humanitarian mission of the medical teams," the organisation posts on X.

⭕️Israeli occupation forces continues its violations of the IHL, which urges them to respect the Red Crescent emblem, and facilitate the humanitarian mission of the medical teams.#ihl#prcs#notatarget ❌ pic.twitter.com/OxpwJAq48L

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 5, 2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that malnutrition in northern Gaza was "particularly extreme".

"The situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank.

He said that one in six children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.

"This was in January. So the situation is likely to be greater today," Peeperkorn added.

(Reuters)

Ceasefire talks between Hamas and mediators broke up on Tuesday in Cairo with no breakthrough, with just days left to halt fighting in time for the start of Ramadan.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters the militant group had presented its proposal for a ceasefire agreement to the mediators during two days of talks, and was now waiting for a response from the Israelis, who stayed away from this round.

"[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn't want to reach an agreement and the ball now is in the Americans' court" to press him for a deal, Naim said.

Israel has declined to comment publicly on the talks in Cairo.

A source told Reuters earlier that Israel was staying away because Hamas had rejected its demand to furnish a list of all hostages who are still alive.

Naim said this was impossible without a ceasefire first as hostages were scattered across the war zone and held by separate groups.

The Cairo talks had been billed as a final hurdle to reach the war's first extended ceasefire – a 40-day truce during which dozens of hostages would be freed and aid would be pumped into Gaza to stave off a manmade famine, ahead of Ramadan, which is due to begin at the start of next week.

Egyptian security sources said on Monday they were still in touch with the Israelis to allow the negotiations to continue without an Israeli delegation present.

(Reuters)

The number of people killed in Gaza has reached 30,631, the strip's health ministry says.

A further 72,043 have been injured during Israel's war, the ministry adds.

It says Israeli forces have perpetrated "10 massacres against the families in the Gaza Strip" in 24 hours, resulting in 97 people killed and 123 injured.

A number of victims remain under the rubble and in the streets, the ministry says, adding that Israel is preventing ambulance and civil defence teams from reaching them.

Yemen's Houthi rebels said late on Monday they had attacked an Israeli ship in the Arabian Sea and fired missiles at US warships in the Red Sea.

A statement by military spokesperson Yahya Sarea named the ship as "MSC SKY", saying it had sustained a "precise and direct hit" with anti-ship missiles.

The statement said the attack came hours after the group fired ballistic missiles and drones at "hostile" US warships in the Red Sea.

The last maritime attack claimed by the group occurred on 24 February on a US ship named as Torm Thor.

US Central Command said via X this morning that the Houthis had struck the "Liberian-flagged, Swiss-owned" MSC SKY the previous day in the Gulf of Aden, and that it had sustained some damage.

Centcom added that its forces had shot down two cruise missiles that threatened US Navy ships.

The bodies of seven Palestinians arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israeli forces targeted a residential block in the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza.

Israeli forces have again attacked Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

The newspaper did not provide any further details on the incident.

Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians looking for humanitarian aid in two massacres on Thursday and Sunday.

The first took place near Gaza City in the strip's north and the second occurred in Deir Al-Balah in the territory's middle.

UNRWA said on Monday that Israeli authorities had tortured some of its staff members during interrogations.

"Some of our staff have conveyed to UNRWA teams that they were forced to confessions under torture and ill-treatment" while being asked about Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel, the agency said in a statement to AFP.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned on Monday of a "deliberate and concerted campaign" aimed at ending its operations as Israel accused the agency of employing over 450 "military operatives" from Hamas and other armed groups.

Philippe Lazzarini did not specifically address the latest claims made by the Israeli military on Monday, but he called out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "openly stating that UNRWA will not be part of post-war Gaza".

"UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them," Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly.

"The implementation of this plan is already underway with the destruction of our infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.

"Dismantling UNRWA is short sighted. By doing so, we will sacrifice an entire generation of children, sowing the seeds of hatred, resentment, and future conflict."

(Reuters)