Israel's war hysteria
Live Reporting
US strains with Israel show as Blinken tours Middle East
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, launching a tour of the Middle East to try to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza war as increasing strain showed in Washington's relationship with its ally Israel.
In Gaza, where hopes were dashed for a ceasefire in the nearly six-month-old war in time for Ramadan last week, residents of Gaza City in the north described the most intense fighting for months around the Al Shifa hospital.
Saudi Arabia announces $40m donation to UNRWA
Saudi Arabia has announced it will donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) which has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel, AFP reports.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) said the funds would support UNRWA’s “humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip”, where the Israeli bombardment has raged for more than five months.
“The funding will provide food for more than 250,000 people and tents for 20,000 families,” KSrelief said in a statement.
“It is crucial to address the desperate needs of the people in Gaza,” said KSrelief chief Abdullah al-Rabeeah.
Israeli protesters urge break-up of UN Palestinian agency
A few dozen Israelis protested outside the Jerusalem office of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), calling for its dismantling after Israel accused some staff of colluding with Hamas, AFP reports.
“UNRWA has allowed terrorism,” said American-Israeli protester Allison Epstein.
“It is not an organisation for peace. It has taught generations of Palestinians to hate Jews. It’s time to dismantle it.”
Around her in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, protesters chanted: “UNRWA is Hamas! Hamas is UNRWA!”.
With no chance to celebrate Ramadan, Gazans gather at soup kitchens
In the Jabalia refugee camp, hungry Gazans hold out pots to receive soup during the holy month of Ramazan, Reuters reports.
As other Muslims around the world consume traditional Ramadan meals and desserts to break their fast after sunset, residents of the besieged strip are lucky to find a few scraps of food, or sips of water, after more than five months of Israeli bombardment in its conflict with Hamas.
The United Nations human rights chief said Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a “war crime”, after a UN-backed report found famine is likely by May without an end to the fighting.
Israel has denied blocking aid to Gaza.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is to visit Washington in the coming week, the government said, as pressure mounts to call off a planned offensive in Gaza’s Rafah, AFP reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also announced that a delegation would visit Washington at “the request of US President Joe Biden” to discuss the planned assault, which the United States opposes.
During his first visit to Washington since the conflict erupted in response to October 7, Gallant is due to meet Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, but no date was announced.
Israel's raid at Al-Shifa hospital results in worsening humanitarian disaster
(Web Desk) - Explosions and shootings shook the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital and surrounding neighborhoods as Israeli forces stormed through the facility for a second day Tuesday. The military said it had killed 50 Hamas militants in the hospital, but it could not be independently confirmed that the dead were combatants.
The raid was a new blow to the Shifa medical complex, which had only partially resumed operations after a destructive Israeli raid in November. Thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and displaced people were trapped inside the sprawling complex Tuesday as heavy fighting between troops and Hamas fighters raged in nearby districts.
Gaza death toll rises to 31,923
The Health Ministry in Gaza says the death toll from Israeli attacks since October 7 has risen to 31,923 with 74,96 people wounded.
In the past 24 hours, at least 104 Palestinians were killed and 162 injured.
Doctors recount horrors of Gaza healthcare collapse and patients’ wounds
Several doctors who recently returned from Gaza, spoke to journalists at the UN, recalling the difficulties medics face trying to save lives in a healthcare system that has totally collapsed.
Nick Maynard, from Medical Aid for Palestinians, said he saw the most devastating burns in small children.
“One child I’ll never forget had burned so bad you could see her facial bones,” he said. “We knew there was no chance of her surviving but there was no morphine to give her. So not only was she inevitably going to die, but she would die in agony. And what made it even worse that there was nowhere for her to go and die. So she was just left on the floor of the emergency department to die.”
Another doctor gave a vivid example of some the medical supplies that are not being allowed into Gaza.
“This small vial of medicine here is a medicine that we use for sedation,” said Thaer Ahmad from Med Global.
“This is something that we could be using for our patients who are in pain, who we are trying to reset their fractures. We’re trying to clean their burns. It’s an incredibly painful process and this is something that can help, [and] we’re not able to get into the Gaza Strip because the trucks are stalled.”
Civilians in Rafah effectively cornered as Israeli offensive looms
More than one million Palestinians are seeking shelter, forced there due to the utter devastation that has occurred as a result of Israel’s bombardment further north.
The Israeli army told them Rafah would be safe but their missiles have continued to strike this densely populated area. Israel says their mission is to eliminate Hamas fighters, but it’s civilians who are being killed.
“[The Israeli military is] saying this is a safe area, but there are no safe areas. They’re hitting from every direction and they don’t care about people. They displaced us from here to there and we don’t know where to go,” one displaced Palestinian in Rafah told Abu Azzoum.
The death toll across Gaza is now more than 31,000, and with people sheltering in Rafah effectively cornered, this will only rise further if Israel’s offensive – ground or air – continues.
Aspiring child journalist Lama visits her destroyed home in Gaza
Lama Abu Jamous, an aspiring child journalist who has gathered a social media following covering Israel’s war on Gaza, has shared footage of her first visit back to her destroyed home in Khan Younis.
Scaling the rubble, the nine-year-old collected some of her old clothes and books, items she’d take back to the tent she and her displaced family now live in.
Blinken due in Saudi Arabia, Egypt
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to return to the Middle East as part of a new push by Washington to secure a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The US’s top diplomat is expected in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and in Egypt on Thursday.
Blinken has previously said he wants to “discuss the right architecture for lasting regional peace” with senior leaders of both countries.
UN official protesting Gaza conflict alleges assault by security at headquarters
A UN official who has been on hunger strike to show support for children killed and harmed during Israel’s war on Gaza has alleged that security staff at the organisation’s New York headquarters assaulted him on Tuesday.
The UN has denied that Bruno Donat, a 54-year-old senior UN humanitarian officer, was assaulted, and said he fell while forcibly resisting attempts by security to remove him from the premises.
Donat, who had been on hunger strike since March 1, said he has now halted his protest as he was experiencing pain and vomiting following the incident.
Children left Gaza but still suffer mental trauma from Israel’s war
A group of children from Gaza are in an art workshop in Bethlehem’s SOS Children’s Village, 102km (63.4 miles) from Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
The children are working on depictions of the three-day journey they took from Rafah to Bethlehem, a convoluted journey to cover a distance that could be driven in an hour.
Psychologists say they are processing a daunting mix of emotions: sadness at leaving their home as well as several children whose families did not approve their evacuations, relief to be getting away from the war, fear of loud noises after experiencing bombings, fleeting happiness at getting to Bethlehem and dreams of going home to Rafah.
How Israeli settlers are expanding illegal outposts amid Gaza war
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have been emboldened during Israel’s war in Gaza, multiplying their attacks on Palestinian residents and building dozens of illegal roads and outposts that further limit Palestinians’ movements.
Data gathered by activists and satellite images verified by Al Jazeera show that between October 2023 and January 2024, settlers in the occupied West Bank built at least 15 outposts and 18 roads – illegal under both Israeli and international law. In addition, settlers built hundreds of metres of fences and multiple roadblocks, further limiting Palestinians’ movement.
“When there is a war, that is when settlers take advantage and try to establish as many outposts as they can,” said Mauricio Lapchik, an activist with Peace Now, an Israeli organisation documenting settlement activities.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, boycotts hammer McDonald’s, Starbucks
Ordinarily during the holy month of Ramadan, entrepreneur Putra Kelana breaks fast with his family and friends at several different food outlets across his city in North Sumatra.
But this year, one outlet will not be on the menu: McDonald’s.
Kelana has been boycotting the fast food chain since October when McDonald’s Israel announced on social media that it had donated thousands of free meals to the Israeli military amid its war in Gaza.
“It is not so much an outright boycott, rather a feeling of being deeply unhappy with Israel,” Kelana told Al Jazeera. “If I could go to Gaza to help fight against the Israeli forces, I would do it. Muslims are being killed by the Israelis every day. Because I can’t go there in person, the next best thing is to show my support by not using products affiliated with Israel.”
Across Southeast Asia, calls to boycott products perceived to have links to Israel are having a noticeable impact on the bottom lines of major brands. In addition to McDonald’s, Unilever and coffee chain Starbucks have been affected, too.
Donors pen letter to Biden warning him he risks losing election over Gaza
A group of more than 100 Democratic donors and activists have sent a letter to US President Joe Biden’s campaign warning that growing anger over his support for Israel is “increasing the chances of a Trump victory” at this year’s presidential election.
The letter, sent on Monday, was signed by a handful of donors who provided six-figure sums to Biden’s presidential campaigns in 2020 and 2024. It criticises Biden for providing “what appears to be unconditional support for the Israeli operation” in Gaza and accuses him of alienating progressive voters.
“As donors and activists, we have committed much time and treasure in helping increase the turnout of likely Biden voters, particularly among young voters and voters of color,” the letter reads.
“Many of these voters are now questioning whether the Democratic Party shares their values. If they stay home or vote for a third-party candidate, there is the very real danger that President Biden will be defeated in November.”
Campaigners welcome Canada’s decision to halt arms exports to Israel
Campaign groups in Canada have welcomed a decision by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to cease further arms exports to Israel, following the passage of a non-binding resolution on the matter in the Canadian parliament.
However, they said the government must make clear if the decision also applies to existing arms export permits.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East called the ban “an important step”, but said that “we need to make sure that Canada stops the transfer of all military exports, period, without any loopholes”.
Labour Against the Arms Trade promised to campaign for a ban on existing arms permits. “Let us be clear: We will continue mobilising with allies until all such permits are cancelled,” it said in a post on X.
David Cameron says ‘a whole lot of conditions’ to meet for permanent ceasefire
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said that a pause in fighting and the release of captives from Gaza was vital but added that the only way to secure lasting peace was to remove Hamas from the Palestinian enclave, the Reuters news agency reports.
“Crucially what we must try to do is to turn that pause into a permanent sustainable ceasefire,” Cameron said in an interview with the agency during a visit to Thailand.
“We will only do that if a whole lot of conditions are fulfilled… we’ve got to get Hamas leaders out of Gaza, we have to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.”
US envoy endorses Israel’s claims of abiding by international law in Gaza: Report
Jack Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, has privately endorsed Israel’s claims that it is abiding by international law in its handling of weapons and humanitarian aid in Gaza, according to a report by the Huffington Post.
Lew endorsed the Israeli claim in a diplomatic cable sent to the State Department on Tuesday, the Huffington Post said, citing two US officials who saw the document.
The cable comes after Biden unveiled a new policy last month that conditioned US military assistance to foreign governments on compliance with international humanitarian law, human rights law and other standards. Under the policy, governments that fail to provide those assurances could see US aid halted.
A US official who read Lew’s cable told Huffington Post that it made “an absurd argument” given the “the record-breaking rates of children killed and starved to death in Gaza”.
Pro-Israel online influencing operation has been targeting UNRWA: Report
An online influencing operation using fake social media accounts has targeted the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cited a new report from a disinformation watchdog.
Fake Reporter, an Israeli group that studies online disinformation, found that the accounts echoed Israeli government accusations about links between the UN agency and Hamas, spreading them in comments on social media websites.
As described by Haaretz, the report – released in Hebrew – said the influencing campaign relied on a network of hundreds of social media accounts, as well as three newly created “news websites”, to promote pro-Israel narratives.
But in recent weeks, the influence campaign has focused its efforts on UNRWA, an agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
US says Israel should allow UN Palestinian agency chief into Gaza
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Tuesday that the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees should be allowed into war-ravaged Gaza, after Israel said he was denied entry because he made paperwork errors.
Israeli officials have long criticized the UN Relief and World Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known by its initials UNRWA, and ramped up pressure after several of the agency's employees were alleged to have participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.
Rafah displaced shiver as thunder and rain lash tent camp
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Torrential rains lashed a tent camp for displaced people in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where frightened Palestinian children can no longer distinguish between thunder and Israeli bombardment.
The storm fell overnight Monday to Tuesday in the southernmost Gaza Strip city, adding to the anguish of Palestinians who fled the war between Hamas and Israel, many without warm clothes, blankets or proper footwear.
Israel may be using starvation as 'weapon of war': UN
GENEVA (AFP) - The UN said on Tuesday (Mar 19) that Israel's severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a "weapon of war", which would be a "war crime".
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk denounced the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.
Netanyahu spurns Biden plea to call off Rafah assault in Gaza
RAFAH (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spurned a plea from Joe Biden to call off a planned ground assault of Rafah, the last refuge in Gaza for more than a million displaced people, where Israel believes Hamas militants are holed up.
Netanyahu told lawmakers on Tuesday (Mar 19) that he had made it "supremely clear" to the US president "that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there's no way to do that except by going in on the ground".
