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At least 17 people are killed in Israeli attacks on Deir el-Balah and the Jabalia refugee camp as the humanitarian crisis worsens.
Here’s how things stand on Saturday, March 2, 2024:
- At least 17 people were killed on Friday night after Israeli fighter jets attacked three residential buildings in the Gaza Strip’s Deir el-Balah area and the Jabalia refugee camp. The United Nations humanitarian agency confirmed that 193 Palestinians were killed and 920 injured between Thursday afternoon and midday on Friday.
- The death toll of Palestinians killed after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd waiting to receive food aid on Thursday morning has risen to 115. Some 760 people were wounded in the Israeli attack that has triggered global condemnation.
- A UN team found that most of those injured in Thursday’s killings – some as young as 12 – have gunshot wounds. That has been corroborated by the acting director of al-Awda Hospital who said 80 percent of the wounded brought to the hospital had been shot.
- Hamas’s military wing said seven more Israeli captives held in Gaza have been killed due to bombardments by the Israeli military.
- At least 10 children have died from malnutrition and dehydration, Gaza’s health ministry announced on Friday, amid warnings by the UN of “famine” in the Strip because of inadequate aid.
- Gaza’s southern Zeitoun neighbourhood, once densely populated, has been levelled by Israeli bombings, an Al Jazeera correspondent said on Friday, adding that dozens of bodies remain trapped beneath the rubble.
- The US has announced plans to drop airdrop aid into Gaza at an unspecified date. President Joe Biden said on Friday that Washington would work with Jordan to ramp up aid to Gazans, possibly through sea borders.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- More countries are calling for an independent probe of the deadly aid delivery incident in Gaza on Thursday. France, Germany and the European Union all said on Friday that Israel must “explain” why its troops opened fire on aid seekers.
- The UN Human Rights office revealed that “at least 14” attacks similar to the aid killings have occurred since mid-January, and has also called for an investigation.
- Meanwhile, the US military said it destroyed a surface-to-air missile that Yemen’s Houthi rebel group was preparing to launch.
- US President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni emphasised their support for Israel’s right to “self-defence” in a meeting at the White House on Friday, and also discussed the urgent need for more aid in Gaza.
- Separately, Biden told reporters on Friday he hoped for a ceasefire in Gaza by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although, he added, “We may not get there”.
- Also in the US, Abdullah Hammoud the mayor of Dearborn, an Arab-majority city in the state of Michigan, has criticised Biden’s plan to airdrop aid in Gaza. Hammoud said the White House was refusing to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli soldiers killed 16-year-old Muhammad Murad al-Deek, after a raid on the Kafr Nima village in Ramallah early on Saturday morning.
- Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers arrested a young man during raids on Qalqilya city and the eastern Azzun town on Friday night – the sixth consecutive night of raids in that location. Israeli forces used live bullets and sound bombs as they were confronted by Palestinian youths resisting a raid on the town of Jaba, south of Jenin.
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