Live blog: Over 13,000 children killed by Israel in Gaza — UNICEF

Sunday, March 17, 2024

1845 GMT — The UN children's agency said over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in Israel's offensive, adding many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition and did not "even have the energy to cry."

"Thousands more have been injured or we can't even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble ... We haven't seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told CBS News' "Face the Nation" programme.

"I've been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies ... don't even have the energy to cry."

Russell said there were "very great bureaucratic challenges" moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance.

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1932 GMT — Any forced displacement of Palestinians into Egypt ‘unacceptable,’ Greek premier says

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that any forced displacement of Palestinians into Egypt is “unacceptable.”

During his visit to Egypt along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and leaders from Italy, Austria, Belgium, and the Greek Cypriot administration, Mitsotakis held bilateral talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi.

Expressing deep concern over the situation in Gaza, the Greek prime minister reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages.

About Israel’s planned ground offensive in the Rafah city, Mitsotakis said it worries both himself and European leaders.

1646 GMT — Netanyahu says won't accept peace deal that leaves them 'weak'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that any Gaza peace deal that weakens Israel and leaves it unable to defend itself against hostile neighbours would be unacceptable.

A potential peace agreement "that makes Israel so weak and unable to defend itself" would "set peace backwards and not forward," he said during a joint press appearance with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in West Jerusalem, reiterating that "Israel has to have the necessary security responsibility" in Gaza.

Netanyahu said that Israel would not leave civilians trapped in Rafah when its forces begin a long-expected assault on the southern Gaza City where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken shelter.

"It's not something we will do while keeping the population locked in place. In fact, we'll do the very opposite, we will enable them to leave."

1555 GMT — EU's von der Leyen says Gaza is facing famine, ceasefire needed rapidly

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Gaza was facing famine and there had to be a rapid ceasefire agreement in the Israeli war on Gaza.

"Gaza is facing famine, and we cannot accept this," von der Leyen told reporters, speaking in Cairo after signing a strategic partnership agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi.

"It is critical to achieve an agreement on a ceasefire rapidly now that frees the hostages and allows more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza."

1522 GMT — Egypt says won’t allow forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi said his country will not allow the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza during talks with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of an Egyptian-European summit in Cairo.

"Egypt rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians to its lands and will not allow it,” the Egyptian leader said, as cited by a presidential statement.

Sisi also underlined the need for a ceasefire in Gaza.

1350 GMT — Egypt warns against Israeli ground attack in Rafah, calls for ceasefire

Egypt warned against an Israeli ground attack on Rafah city in southern Gaza and demanded international stakeholders and the UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibilities by calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“It will harm Palestinian civilians who took refuge in Rafah as the last safe haven inside Gaza,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“Any operation (in Rafah), despite international rejection, reflects indifference to the lives of innocent civilians and is a grave violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” the ministry said.

Egypt also called on Israel to stop its policies “of collective punishment against the residents of Gaza, including siege, starvation, indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and the destruction of infrastructure."

1258 GMT — Palestinians in Gaza ‘on verge of famine’ amid Israeli war — UN

“People in Gaza are on the verge of famine,” the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement.

“UNRWA needs to be able to reach as many people as possible with critical aid.”

The UN agency said the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza “remains the most efficient and safest way.”

“Safe, unimpeded and sustained access throughout Gaza is a matter of life and death,” it added.

1247 GMT — Israel stages fresh airstrikes in southern Lebanon amid tension with Hezbollah

Israeli warplanes launched fresh airstrikes in southern Lebanon, according to local media.

Israeli fighter jets struck a house in the border town of Aitaroun, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The same house was targeted in an airstrike on Saturday.

Another Israeli airstrike was reported in the town of Ayta ash-Shab.

There were no reports yet of casualties or damage.

1231 GMT — Jordan, Germany warn against Israeli ground attack on Rafah

Jordan and Germany warned that an Israeli ground attack on Rafah city will worsen humanitarian conditions in southern Gaza.

Jordanian King Abdullah II held talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Red Sea port city of Aqaba to discuss developments in Gaza, the royal court said in a statement.

Abdullah underlined the need for the international community “to move urgently to reach an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

He called for doubling efforts to protect civilians and provide sufficient humanitarian aid by all possible means, it added.

The two leaders also warned that an Israeli ground attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million people have taken refuge from the ongoing Israeli war, “would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

1224 GMT — Israel lost the war against Hamas in Gaza: former military commander

Israel has lost its war against Hamas in Gaza, a former Israeli military commander said.

“You can't lie to many people for a long time,” Yitzhak Brick, a former ombudsman major general, said in an article in Maariv newspaper.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon will blow up in our faces sooner or later,” he warned.

Brick said the Israeli home front “is not prepared for a regional war, which will be thousands of times more difficult and serious than the war in the Gaza Strip.”

“This is the most serious scandal since the establishment of the army,” he said. “We have already lost the war with Hamas, and we are also losing our allies in the world at a dizzying rate.”

1213 GMT — We will enter Rafah despite 'international pressure' — Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli troops would pursue a planned ground offensive in southern Gaza's Rafah that has spurred fears of mass civilian casualties.

"No amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting in a video released by his office.

"To do this, we will also operate in Rafah."

1140 GMT — Yemen’s Houthis report fresh US-UK airstrikes on its sites

US and British warplanes carried out fresh airstrikes against Houthi sites inside Yemen, according to the Yemeni group.

Al Masirah TV said an air raid targeted At-Ta'iziyah district in the southwestern Taiz province.

The airstrike came shortly after the US Central Command said that US forces had destroyed five unmanned surface vessels and an unmanned aerial vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas "in self-defence."

1127 GMT — Aid reaches northern Gaza as Israel and Hamas consider truce talks

Trucks of flour have reached northern Gaza for distribution to areas that have had no aid in four months, Palestinian media reported, with famine looming in the enclave and truce talks between Israel and Hamas due to resume in Qatar.

A convoy of 12 trucks arrived in the north — six in Gaza City and six in the Jabalia refugee camp — carrying supplies to also be distributed to the northernmost areas of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the media and residents said.

The Home Front media outlet reported that the aid was distributed by the "Popular Committees", a group that includes leaders of powerful clans in Gaza, saying the route was secured by Hamas security personnel.

1052 GMT — Israel arrests 25 more Palestinians in West Bank raids

Israeli army forces detained 25 more Palestinians in military raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.

Most of the arrests took place in the cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Jenin Tulkarm, Ramallah, and occupied East Jerusalem, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

A child and a woman from Gaza were among the detainees, the statement said.

The new arrests brought to 7,630 Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

0843 GMT — Deadly strikes hit Gaza as Israel mulls truce talks position

At least 61 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, the health ministry in Gaza has said, as Israel was preparing to send negotiators to new truce talks in Qatar.

Israel's security cabinet and the smaller war cabinet were to meet to "decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha," the prime minister's office said.

Its statement did not specify when the delegation would leave for the latest round of talks which comes after Hamas submitted a new proposal for a pause in fighting and hostage release.

0345 GMT — US destroys Houthi drones in latest Red Sea skirmish

The United States has shot down a drone fired by Yemen's Houthis toward the Red Sea and destroyed more of their weaponry, its military said.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that on Houthis launched two drones towards the Red Sea, a commercially vital seaway that they have targeted dozens of times in the past four months.

CENTCOM forces "successfully engaged and destroyed one" drone while the other is presumed to have crashed into the Red Sea, the statement said, adding that there were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the area.

0224 GMT — Suspected attack by Yemen's Houthis in Gulf of Aden

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthis saw an explosive detonate near a ship in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel's crew saw the blast as it passed off the coast of Aden, the port city in southern Yemen home to the country's exiled government.

“No damage to the vessel has been reported and the crew are reported safe,” UKMTO said.

0144 GMT — UAE, Egypt make 9th Gaza aid airdrop

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt air forces carried out a ninth airdrop of humanitarian and relief aid into Gaza.

The joint operation was carried out using two aircraft carrying 33 tons of food and medical aid, the Joint Operations Command of the UAE Defense Ministry wrote on X.

The Egyptian Defense Ministry said the Egyptian Air Force "intensified their air aid delivery activities" from Al-Arish Airport to Gaza in coordination with the UAE Air Force.

2335 GMT — Situation in Gaza ‘catastrophic,’ says Doctors Without Borders nurse

Gaza is “catastrophic” according to a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) nurse working in the region.

“The current situation in Gaza is catastrophic and words can’t describe it,” MSF wrote on X, citing Loay Harb who is working in northern Gaza.

Harb said the group has no electricity, water, flour or internet connection, which has created instability for residents.

“We are going through very difficult times due to the siege, poverty, and starvation,” he added.

2330 GMT — Israeli delegation for Gaza ceasefire to visit Qatar on Monday

An Israeli delegation, which will participate in ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, will visit Qatar as the Arab Gulf state is serving as an intermediary, sources said.

The Israeli War Cabinet will meet Sunday, according to Israel's public broadcaster KAN.

The delegation headed by Mossad President David Barnea will not go to Qatar before Monday, as the meeting will be held late Sunday.

Following the Israeli Cabinet's deliberation on a ceasefire proposal by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, Tel Aviv announced Friday it will send a delegation to Doha to speak with officials.

2300 GMT — Palestinians in northern Gaza only option to eat is to collect legumes, rice amid sand, gravel

Palestinians in Gaza have no other option but to gather legumes and rice from the sand and gravel to provide food for their children during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

That is because grains were scattered from a shipment dropped by a plane but it fell into the sea. The plane was distributing aid above the northern part of the enclave.

Anadolu observed a group of Palestinians on the beach in northern Gaza gathering rice, lentils and pasta from the sands and gravel. They separated them using a small sieve.

One told Anadolu that the plane dropped the shipment but it fell into the sea, and they were unable to retrieve it.

For our live updates from Saturday, March 16, click here.