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Live blog: Palestinian death toll hits 31,988 as Israel continues to bomb
Israeli war on besieged Palestinians of Gaza — now in its 167th day — has killed at least 31,988 people and wounded 74,188 others, as Tel Aviv’s war drags Gaza toward famine.
About 72 percent of the victims were women and children, while 27 people also died of malnutrition as Israel prevents the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid into the blockaded territory. / Photo: AFP
AFP
About 72 percent of the victims were women and children, while 27 people also died of malnutrition as Israel prevents the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid into the blockaded territory. / Photo: AFP
Thursday, March 21, 2024
0856 GMT — In the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 65 people were killed, with 92 sustaining injuries by Israel’s relentless bombardment.
According to the statement, the number of Palestinians brutally killed by Israel has reached a staggering 31,988, while the count of those injured has soared to 74,188 since the beginning of Israel’s military assault in Gaza on October 7th.
Israel’s escalating attacks continue to ravage Palestinians and inflict immense suffering on civilians caught in the fire.
More updates 👇
0812 GMT — Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince to discuss Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the kingdom’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and efforts to increase aid to Palestinians. Blinken began a tour of the Middle East on Wednesday.
0804 GMT — Israeli raid in occupied West Bank kills four: new toll
The death toll rose to four on Thursday in an Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
“Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nur Shams camp,” the group said on X, formerly Twitter, adding his death brought the toll to four.
0706 GMT — Israel army bombs building in Gaza’s Al Shifa Medical Complex
The Israeli army has bombed a building in the Al Shifa Medical Complex in the western part of Gaza City, Palestinian media has reported.
“The occupation army (Israel) bombed the specialised surgeries building in Al Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City,” in northern Gaza, Al Aqsa channel said in a brief statement on Telegram.
Earlier, Palestine TV reported that “the occupation forces threatened the displaced people inside Al Shifa Complex through loudspeakers and demanded their immediate evacuation from the complex.”
0647 GMT — Israel claims of killing 140 Palestinian ‘gunmen’ in Gaza hospital
The Israeli military has said that it killed more than 140 Palestinian ‘gunmen’ over the past day in fighting around Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital.
The military said it was continuing with its “precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital.”
“Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital,” it said.
0500 GMT — US urges Israel to consider ‘alternatives’ to Rafah invasion
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin engaged in discussions with Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, focusing on negotiations concerning the release of hostages and the implementation of a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, a Pentagon spokesman has said in a statement.
“Secretary Austin raised the need to consider alternatives to a major ground operation in Rafah while reiterating the shared goal of defeating Hamas,” Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.
During their dialogue, both officials deliberated on the pressing need to intensify efforts in safeguarding civilians and expeditiously augmenting the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza via land crossings, the readout added.
0436 GMT — US submits UN resolution for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza
The United States submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
“We have in fact submitted a resolution which is now before the Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire linked to the release of the hostages, and we very much hope that countries will support it,” he told Saudi media outlet Al Hadath on Wednesday evening during a visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss Israel’s Gaza war.
0424 GMT — Blinken: ‘gaps are narrowing’ to reach ceasefire deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is “very much possible” and the “gaps are narrowing” as talks in Qatar continue.
“It’s getting closer. I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Blinken said in an interview with the Saudi Al-Hadath channel during his visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We worked very hard with Qatar, with Egypt and with Israel to put a strong proposal on the table. We did that. Hamas wouldn’t accept it. They came back with other requests, other demands. The negotiators are working on that right now. But I believe it’s very much doable, and it’s very much necessary,” he said.
READ MORE
Israeli army admits to deliberately targeting Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital
0420 GMT — Israel submits assurances to US on American weapon use in Gaza
Israel has submitted written assurances as required by the US State Department stating its use of American-supplied weapons are not being used to violate humanitarian laws in Gaza, a US official has said.
Israel had until a Sunday deadline to submit written assurances. The State Department will assess by early May whether Israel’s assurances are credible and report to the US Congress.
President Joe Biden had last month issued a new US national security memorandum that reminds countries receiving US weapons to stick to international law.
0214 GMT — Not another nickel for Netanyahu’s war machine: US Senator
The US should stop funding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “cruel war” in Gaza, independent Senator Bernie Sanders has said.
“History will judge what we do right now. History will judge whether we stand with starving children, whether we uphold American values, or we provide massive aid to a war machine that is operating in an unbelievably barbaric way,” Sanders said.
“The United States must make it clear. Not another nickel for Netanyahu’s war machine.”
0143 GMT — French senator lambasts Israeli premier for ‘using hunger as a weapon’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go down in history for “using hunger as a weapon” in Gaza, the president of the ecologist group in the French Senate has said.
In his speech at the Senate General Assembly, Guillaume Gontard said history books will write that Israel caused an explosion of violence in Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023.
Noting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands has been warning since January that there is a risk of genocide in Gaza, Gontard recalled that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently said that Gaza has “turned into the world’s biggest open-air graveyard.”
Gontard noted that journalists and doctors have documented the “apocalypse-like” situation in Gaza and said that more children were killed in four months in the enclave than the number of children killed in four years around the world.
0142 GMT — Israeli air strike in West Bank kills two Palestinians
Two Palestinians, who the Israeli military said posed a “threat” to its soldiers, were killed by an air strike in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has said.
Israel’s military said shortly after midnight that it was carrying out an operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, which adjoins the town of Tulkarm in the northwest of the West Bank.
“During the operation, an aircraft struck two terrorists who posed an immediate threat to the forces,” the Israeli army said in a brief message.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry also said two people had been killed by Israeli fire in the Nur Shams camp and that their bodies had been transferred to a hospital in Tulkarm.
0042 GMT — ’17 Israeli soldiers’ killed in attacks by Hezbollah since Oct.7
At least 17 Israeli soldiers have been killed in attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah group since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in early October, an Israeli media outlet has said.
“17 Israeli soldiers were killed, the majority of them falling victim to anti-tank missiles and drones launched by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, since the start of confrontations,” said the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
Israeli authorities typically do not announce the deaths of soldiers in ongoing confrontations at the northern border of Israel.
The broadcasting authority noted that the Israeli army had detected the launch of 3,500 missiles and rockets from Lebanese territory towards Israel since the start of the fighting with Hezbollah.
2324 GMT — Nearly 70 ex-US officials urge Biden to take hard line on Israel
Nearly 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers have urged President Joe Biden to warn Israel of serious consequences if it denies civil rights and basic necessities to Palestinians and expands illegal Zionist settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
“The United States must be willing to take concrete action to oppose” such practices, the group said in an open letter to Biden, “including restrictions on provision of [US] assistance [to Israel] consistent with US law and policy.”
Among the signatories were more than a dozen former ambassadors, as well as other retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, including Anthony Lake, a national security adviser to former president Bill Clinton.
In its letter, the group said Israel’s invasion has been marked by “repeated violations” of international law banning indiscriminate killing and the use of weapons that do not permit discrimination between combatants and civilians, the group said.
“Tens of thousands of Gazan civilians have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children,” the group said. “Civilian killings of this nature and magnitude cannot be justified.”
2302 GMT — Programme to bring besieged Palestinians to Canada a ‘failure’
A programme to grant temporary visas for Palestinians with families in Canada has been a “failure,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller said.
Canada opened the door for up to 1,000 Palestinians, but as of Monday, only 14 had been approved out of 984 applicants because the latter cannot leave Gaza to undergo a screening step in Egypt.
“This is a programme that we knew from the get-go could be a failure,” Miller said. “Up to now, it is a failure, and it’s something I think we need to recognise.”
The pathway, as it is called, opened up in January with an initial goal of bringing 1,000 Palestinians who were sponsored by close family to Canada.
2205 GMT — Pro-Palestine protesters heckle Scholz at book fair
Pro-Palestine protesters have heckled and interrupted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he tried to give a speech at the opening of the Leipzig Book Fair.
Several loud cries could be heard as Scholz began his speech at Germany’s second-largest book fair after Frankfurt.
The Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper said the protesters appeared to be pro-Palestinian activists and one person could be heard calling, “It’s not a humanitarian disaster, it’s a genocide”.
Scholz stopped his speech to address the protesters, telling them: “Stop shouting, that’s enough.”
“The power of the word brings us all together here in Leipzig, not the power of shouting,” he added.
A man could later be heard calling on the audience to protest against arms deliveries to Israel.
2046 GMT — Business leader says Israel needs Palestinian workers
Israeli managers are “generally in favour” of the return of Palestinian employees whose work permits were cancelled after Hamas’ unprecedented attack, an Israeli business community leader has told the AFP news agency.
The president of the Israeli Federation of Bi-national Chambers of Commerce, Dan Catarivas, called for a discussion on this question which has serious consequences for Israel’s economy, where entire sectors such as construction relied on Palestinian labour.
Some 120,000 Palestinians, the majority from the occupied West Bank, had permits before the war in Gaza to enter Israel to work — but those were cancelled.
The permits are approved by COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry body governing civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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Many Israelis are in denial about Gaza’s plight. Let’s change that
For our live updates from Wednesday, March 20, click here.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
