Crisis in Gaza
Live Reporting
Cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas expected to restart
Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas are expected to restart in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials.
The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders joined the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week, but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.
Israeli citizen accused of joining Hamas in Gaza dies in Israeli custody: Report
A Bedouin Israeli man who entered Gaza in 2016 and allegedly joined Hamas has died in Israeli custody, according to the Times of Israel.
The 26-year-old man, Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima, who was arrested when he tried to cross back into Israel during the ongoing war, was found unconscious in his Israeli prison cell and later confirmed dead by the hospital he was brought to, according to the report, which cites Israel’s Prison Service.
Abu Ghanima had been charged by Israel with joining Hamas, undergoing military training with the group, and carrying out surveillance operations during his time in Gaza.
More strikes reported on Nuseirat camp
More Israeli army attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp have been reported this morning after an earlier air raid on a family home killed 36 people.
Al Jazeera reporters said Israel launched several strikes on the camp, located in central Gaza. Two people have so far been confirmed dead, and several have been injured, in addition to the 36 who were killed overnight.
Israeli military faces biggest mental health crisis since 1973 war: Official
Thousands of Israeli soldiers are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or other combat trauma, according to the head of the army’s mental health department.
At least 1,000 of these soldiers have been diagnosed with “acute distress disorder”, department head Colonel Lucian Tatsa-Laur told Israeli newspaper TheMarker.
With the mental health decline, more and more soldiers are refusing to return to the battlefield after being granted temporary leave, a trend that is challenging army operations, said Tatsa-Laur.
“As a psychiatrist, I wish I had a magic wand that could make this whole period disappear,” he said.
Third of children under two are ‘acutely malnourished’ in Gaza: UNRWA
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warns malnutrition has reached “unprecedented levels” in Gaza, with a third of children under the age of two now “acutely malnourished”.
This is an increase of 15.6 percent from January, according to screenings conducted by the UN children’s fund (UNICEF).
Israeli military claims to kill dozens of Hamas fighters in last 24 hours
Israeli air strikes killed at least 15 Hamas fighters in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, including a sniper squad commander, according to the Israeli military’s latest war update. Israeli troops killed 10 other fighters elsewhere in central Gaza, the statement added.
In southern Khan Younis, Israeli forces pinpointed and destroyed a Hamas weapons depot while directing air strikes against two more Hamas members, the military said.
According to Gaza’s government media office, Israel’s latest strikes caused a heavy civilian toll. One strike on a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp killed 36 people, the majority being children, along with several pregnant women, the media office reported.
Israeli forces storm Nablus, arrest two Palestinians: Report
The Israeli forces have raided the city of Nablus and two villages in the north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank this morning, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Witnesses quoted by Wafa said troops in about 25 military vehicles stormed Nablus after entering the city from the western side, adding that snipers were also deployed.
Soldiers arrested two young men during the raid, the sources added.
Israel’s army also stormed the villages of Qarawat Bani Zeid and Kafr Ein in the northwest of Ramallah, according to Wafa’s sources, without any arrests or confrontations reported.
Israeli military claims overnight strikes on Hezbollah: Report
Israeli fighter jets hit Hezbollah sites near the Lebanese border villages of Tayr Harfa and Labbouneh last night, according to an Israeli military statement.
According to Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper, the Israeli strike near Tayr Harfa hit an empty home, destroying it and severely damaging other nearby homes and property.
Since the Gaza war broke out, Hezbollah and Israel have regularly traded cross-border strikes, but Israel’s attacks have crept deeper into Lebanese territory in recent days.
On Friday, the Lebanese armed group released a statement saying it is ready to expand hostilities if Israel does.
Health system in Gaza ‘catastrophic’
Dr James Smith says Gaza’s health system collapsed in late October and it has not recovered since.
“That is because the supplies, resources, specialists and so on required have either not entered into Gaza or where such commodities or resources made available, it is impossible to work in a context of such extreme violence and insecurity,” said Smith, who used to work at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza until earlier this year.
He told Al Jazeera from London that “the hospital is barely able to cope”, adding that a colleague there sent him a recent message, in which he called the situation “catastrophic”.
“They have very limited means to provide care to patients, while patients are presenting some of the most horrific trauma-related injuries and also non-trauma-related healthcare problems I have ever seen,” he said.
People, often children, show up multiple times a day with severe traumatic amputations with more than one limp and such injuries in normal circumstances require prolonged specialist care that is simply not available at the current time, Smith added.
Unclear how much flexibility Israeli negotiators will show in Qatar
Compared with the last round of truce talks in Cairo, to which Israel publicly said it would not send a delegation, this seems to be an improvement on their willingness to have a conversation.
What we don’t yet know is who will be attending the talks on behalf of the Israeli delegation in Qatar, what their seniority is, and quite crucially, the extent of their mandate.
How much flexibility will the Israeli government give them to negotiate the finer points of any agreement?
At the same time, Netanyahu’s approval of a ground assault in Rafah may essentially be a threat, a maximalist position, as you would expect during public negotiations – showing that the Israeli military is prepared to take that step.
And yet we have heard again and again from Hamas that any deal needs to include a permanent ceasefire – and clearly military operations in Rafah would not constitute that.
Israel defence minister: PA-linked Palestinian groups leading Gaza is least-worst option
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said local Palestinians associated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) should govern Gaza after the war because that is the most viable option, reports The Times of Israel.
Gallant, speaking at a security cabinet meeting on Friday, said there are four scenarios that could play out in Gaza after the war:
Hamas continues to rule if Israel does not entirely defeat it
Israel permanently occupies Gaza
Gaza falls into chaos with no structured leadership
Local Palestinians govern the Strip, taking their cue from PA-led Ramallah
The least detrimental of these scenarios, he said, is for the local Palestinians – who would be unaffiliated with Hamas – to lead the enclave.
However, Gallant’s comments drew backlash from several members of the security cabinet, including Transport Minister Miri Regev and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who accused Gallant of effectively endorsing the PA, according to the Times of Israel.
Japan to deliver aid to Gaza through Mediterranean corridor
Japan will join the Mediterranean maritime corridor initiative to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza from the Republic of Cyprus, according to Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.
In remarks quoted by local media, the minister said the government plans to coordinate promptly with other related countries to deliver aid through the corridor.
The project was launched earlier in the week, mainly initiated by Cyprus, the US, the EU and the United Arab Emirates.
“We will work promptly on the matter,” the top Japanese diplomat added.
Babies being born already malnourished in Gaza
Dominic Allen, a representative for the UN Population Fund Palestine, recently visited the Emirati Hospital in Rafah.
Conditions at the facility’s maternity ward are deeply disturbing, he said, with a stark rise in malnourished newborns and still-born deaths.
“The doctors are reporting that they no longer see normal-sized babies,” Allen told Al Jazeera. “What they do see though tragically is more stillborn babies and more neonatal deaths.”
Hamas’s new ceasefire proposal indicates ‘some flexibility’: Analyst
Gershon Baskin, a columnist with the Jerusalem Post newspaper in Israel, has said Hamas’s latest ceasefire proposal indicates “some flexibility” on the part of the group.
Baskin says Israel may also be prepared to be flexible given that it has chosen to send a delegation to Doha when it did not send a team to earlier talks in Cairo.
“I think for the Israelis, the most difficult part as far as we know is the 700-1,000 prisoners to be released include at least 100 prisoners who are serving life sentences, meaning they have murdered Israelis,” he told Al Jazeera. “That is going to be very difficult for the cabinet to accept.”
IRC’s Miliband says air deliveries of aid ‘ineffective, dehumanizing’
David Miliband, the president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, has criticised the delivery of aid by air into Gaza.
Posting on X, Miliband said such an approach was “unsafe, ineffective and dehumanizing” and that more effort was needed to create safe routes for aid to be delivered by land.
Rights advocates condemn ‘systemic abuse’ in Israeli prisons
Several Israeli NGOs have warned the United Nations that the war in Gaza is contributing towards a “crisis” in Israeli prisons.
Advocates say there are a record number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, where they face “systemic abuse” and torture.
“We are extremely, extremely concerned,” Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), was quoted as saying in an interview with the AFP news agency. “What we’re looking at is a crisis.”
She said nine people had allegedly died in prisons since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
And “there are almost 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody right now, … a 200-percent increase from any normal year”.
Miriam Azem of the Adalah legal centre said the deepening problem was not getting enough attention.
Her organisation had managed to document “19 clear cases” of torture within the Israeli prison system since October 7, including sexual violence, she told AFP.
The crisis “requires the immediate intervention of the international community,” she said.
The Israeli Prison Service told the news agency that All prisoners were “detained according to the law” and it was “not aware of the claims” against it. A spokesperson added that any complaints filed by detainees would “be fully examined and addressed by official authorities”.
Aid group says 'unloading' food barge in Gaza
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – A United States charity said on Friday it was unloading the first shipment of food aid sent via a maritime corridor from Cyprus to war-ravaged Gaza.
"World Central Kitchen is unloading the barge connected now to the jetty," said Linda Roth, a spokesperson for the group.
'Difficult' Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Under a heavy police presence, tens of thousands of Muslims attended the first Friday prayers of Ramazan in east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a gathering weighed down by the war in Gaza.
Old men leaning on canes, veiled women and smartly dressed children flowed through the gates of the Israeli-annexed Old City for the midday prayer, which unfolded peacefully, though some younger men were turned away by police conducting security checks.
Blinken says US working to 'bridge remaining gaps' on Hamas-Israel deal
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Washington was working "intensively" with its partners "to bridge the remaining gaps" for a deal to free hostages held by Hamas and secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
"Yes, there has been a counter-proposal put forward by Hamas. I obviously can't get into the details of what that involves, but what I can tell you is we're working intensively with Israel, with Qatar, with Egypt, to bridge the remaining gaps and to try to reach an agreement," Blinken said during a visit to Vienna.
Israel approves plan to attack Rafah but keeps truce hopes alive
GAZA STRIP/CAIRO/DUBAI (Reuters) - Israel approved on Friday (Mar 15) a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had approved a plan to attack the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are sheltering after five months of war.
