Gaza Under Siege
Live Reporting
How Israel’s war on Gaza changed Ramadan football
More than 1,000 people displaced by the war have taken refuge at Al-Salah Football Club, where football matches and training sessions came to a halt five months ago.
However, in order to offer momentary distraction to the families living on its premises, the club has been running a five-a-side football tournament during Ramadan.
“By organising this tournament, we are trying to deceive ourselves and say there’s a life in Gaza,” said Nabeel Abu-Asr, the club’s director of sports activities. “We will give awards to the top two teams, but it will probably be a very small amount of money or a food aid package,” he said with a despondent shrug.
“It feels wrong, but we want to bring them some joy.”
‘Influx of newborns suffering from acute malnutrition’ in Gaza hospitals
More than 14,000 children have been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. In addition, thousands are left suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration.
Doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza say they’re seeing many infants daily whose weight does not match their age. They are appealing for desperately needed supplies as at least 27 children have died of malnutrition and dehydration since October.
“Being part of the ICU staff at Kamal Adwan hospital, we clearly notice the influx of newborns suffering from acute malnutrition and advanced severe dehydration,” a doctor at the medical complex said.
“This is mainly due to absence of formula milk. As a result, babies reach critical and severe degrees of dehydration and acidemia disorders and ultimately death. On a daily basis, we receive two to three cases of underweight babies.”
Destruction near al-Shifa Hospital leaves neighbourhood ‘unrecognisable’
It’s getting very difficult to keep up with the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. The past 24 hours were very difficult here in Rafah, with more mass killings and destruction of residential homes and agricultural land.
Israeli forces have continued their attacks in and around al-Shifa Hospital. They are not only causing a great deal of damage to the medical complex but systematically destroying homes in the area.
We are looking at an entire residential neighbourhood near the hospital that has been destroyed, rendered beyond recognition. It appears to be a systematic attempt to clear out the area.
Israel accused of ‘executing’ 13 children near al-Shifa in one week
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has accused Israeli forces of directly shooting at and executing 13 children in and near al-Shifa Hospital in just one week.
The monitoring group, citing its teams on the ground, said some of the fatal shootings occurred as victims’ families were inside their homes amid Israel’s continuing raid on al-Shifa, and others while the victims were attempting to escape via routes designated as safe.
In one testimony, Islam Ali Salouha told Euro-Med that Israeli forces on Sunday shot at and killed his sons – nine-year-old Ali and six-year-old Saeed Muhammad Sheikha – on a corpse-strewn street near al-Shifa that the Israeli army had designated for travel. The Israeli forces targeted the two children in particular, he said.
Salouha said he, his sons and neighbours only left the building because Israeli forces had told them to evacuate or face having their building bombed.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian journalist in al-Shifa Hospital
Local media is reporting that Israeli forces have shot and killed Palestinian journalist Muhammad Abu Sakhil at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Abu Sakhil, a reporter with Palestinian outlet Sawt al-Quds Radio, joins the almost 100 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli attacks since October 7.
Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa Hospital with tanks and heavy gunfire on March 18 and have been laying siege to it since. The military says it’s targeting “terrorists” sheltering inside the medical facility, claiming it has killed some 175 Palestinian fighters and arrested 500 more during the siege.
Scores of civilians have also been killed, however, with witnesses saying Israeli forces have carried out “execution-style” killings.
Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war's toll on Palestinian children
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.
One toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull. His cousin, an infant, is still fighting for her life with part of her face blown off by the same strike.
Five Palestinians wounded during Israeli raids in Qalandiya, Nablus
The Wafa news agency, citing local sources, says at least five Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire during raids on the Qalandiya refugee camp and the city of Nablus.
Four of the casualties were in Qalandiya, where large numbers of Israeli soldiers accompanied by a bulldozer raided several houses. They received treatment in the city of Ramallah for their wounds.
The fifth young man, a 23-year-old, was shot in the thigh and received treatment from the Palestinian Red Crescent, Wafa said.
Two injured in highway shooting in occupied West Bank
The Israeli military says an individual opened fire on vehicles on a highway near the town of al-Auja in the occupied West Bank.
The Times of Israel, citing local medics, reports that at least three people were injured, one critically, from the shooting, which targeted a school bus and several cars.
Israeli forces are at the scene and pursuing the attacker, according to an Israeli military statement.
We’ll bring you more on this as we have it.
Al-Shifa fighting indicates Palestinians maintain ‘significant combat effectiveness’: Monitors
Palestinian fighters have carried out almost 70 attacks against Israeli forces in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City since March 18, when the Israeli military returned to the area, war monitors report.
“This high rate of attack indicates that Palestinian militias retain a significant degree of combat effectiveness in the area, despite continued Israeli clearing efforts around Gaza City,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said in their latest Gaza battlefield assessment.
The US-based think tanks said at least six armed Palestinian groups are battling Israeli forces deployed around al-Shifa Hospital.
Despite Israel completing a “clearing operation” in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood on March 3, Israeli forces returned to the area on Wednesday, a move which suggests Palestinian fighters continue to operate there as they do elsewhere in Gaza City, according to the latest ISW/CTP report.
Three killed in Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya
We’ve been covering Israel’s pre-dawn attacks on northern Gaza.
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that at least three people were killed and 20 other wounded in an Israeli raid on a home in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Al Jazeera Arabic also said there were casualties as a result of an Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.
British-Palestinian man threatens legal action over UK decision to halt UNRWA funding
A British-Palestinian man whose parents live in Gaza has threatened legal action against the UK government over its decision to suspend funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), a campaign group has announced.
The unnamed man issued a pre-action letter to the UK’s Foreign Office on Tuesday saying he would challenge the decision in court if the government does not restore funding to UNRWA by April 2, according to a statement by the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).
The complainant was motivated by a “desperate bid to protect his family”, who are UNRWA-registered refugees and are completely reliant on aid from the agency, the statement said.
The UK government suspended funding for UNRWA in January after Israel accused some 12 of the agency’s 13,000 staff in Gaza of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. UNRWA said Israel has yet to provide evidence to supports its allegations.
Many countries including Canada, Australia, Finland and Sweden have since resumed their contributions to the UN agency.
Protests as UNRWA suspends teacher in Lebanon
Dozens of people gathered outside the office of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Lebanese capital Beirut after the organisation suspended a staff member, the Reuters news agency reports.
Fathi al-Sharif, a school teacher, was put on unpaid leave for three months as UNRWA investigates activities that are potentially “in violation of the agency’s regulatory framework governing staff conduct”.
UNRWA did not offer any more details on the suspension, but protesters who gathered to support al-Sharif told Reuters that he had been accused of links to the Palestinian group Hamas.
Several major donors withdrew funding from UNRWA in February after Israel accused 12 of its staff members of participating in the October 7 attacks. UNRWA said Israel has yet to provide evidence of its claims.
Gaza solidarity protests continue outside Israeli embassy in Jordan for fourth day
Hundreds of people protesting Israel’s war on Gaza gathered near the Israeli embassy in Jordan’s capital Amman for a fourth day running on Wednesday night.
The crowds chanted slogans of solidarity with the people of Gaza and waved Palestinian flags, as they called on the government to cancel Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel.
“We are asking the Jordanian government to cancel the Wadi Araba treaty [Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel] and all its annexes that we believe harm Jordanian national interests,” one protester told the Reuters news agency.
On Tuesday, riot police beat and arrested dozens of protesters attempting to march towards the Israeli embassy.
UN expert defiant amid threats after Israel 'genocide' finding
GENEVA (AFP) – A UN expert who determined that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza on Wednesday said that she had faced threats over her work but insisted it only made her more determined to push ahead.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said this week there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing "genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza.
US official accuses UN expert on Palestine of anti-Semitism
A spokesman for the US State Department has accused a UN expert of anti-Semitism and dismissed her findings that Israel is committing genocidal acts in Gaza.
Matthew Miller made the comments when a journalist asked him to respond to a recent report by Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine, that found Israel’s assault on Gaza reveals an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group.
“For a very longstanding period of time, we have opposed the mandate of this special rapporteur, which we believe is not productive,” Miller said.
“And when it comes to the individual who holds that position, I can’t help but note a history of anti-Semitic comments that she has made that has been reported. And comments she made in December that appeared to justify the attacks of October 7. I think that’s important to take into account,” he said.
“With respect to the report itself, we have made clear that we believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded. But at the same time, we are deeply concerned by the number of civilian casualties,” he added.
Gaza aid airdrops questioned after 18 more die on ground
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Even before 18 people were killed when airdrops of aid into Gaza went disastrously wrong on Monday, many had questioned the sense in using planes when food can be delivered far more rapidly by road.
With only a trickle of aid getting into the starving north and the United Nations warning of "imminent famine" as it accuses Israel of blocking deliveries, foreign governments have turned to airdrops as "a way to show that they're doing something", said Shira Efron of the Israel Policy Forum.
Famine is looming is Gaza: WHO chief
Director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says starvation and illness are “ravaging” the population in Gaza.
“Immediate, concerted action is needed now,” he said in a post on X, explaining that this includes accelerating the delivery of food and medicines and protecting health facilities.
Israel bombs Gaza, fights Hamas around hospitals
GAZA STRIP (AFP) - Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday (Mar 27) in the war sparked by the Oct 7 attack and fought Hamas around several hospitals despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.
Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal, involving US and Egyptian mediators, have brought no result so far, with Israel and the Palestinian militant group blaming each other.
Israel has asked to reschedule a meeting with US officials to discuss its military plans for a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, just days after Israel’s Netanyahu abruptly scrapped the talks.
Israeli strikes on Rafah raise fear assault could begin
GAZA STRIP: Israel bombed at least four homes in Rafah on Wednesday (Mar 27), raising new fear among the more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground assault could be coming.
One of the airstrikes killed 11 people from a single family, health officials said.
