Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, March 13, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
An aid ship carrying food and other essential items to Gaza, which set sail from Cyprus, was nearing the Palestinian enclave after days of delay.
The departure came after announcements that Cyprus, the European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom were jointly working on establishing a maritime corridor to provide aid to Gaza.
Separately, Israeli forces launched air attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens, including 10 people in Deir el-Balah, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israel “will finish the job in Rafah”, reaffirming a ground operation will go ahead in the southern Gaza city.
UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for “answers from the Israelis” in response to a BBC report revealing that Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza to mistreatment, including blindfolding, detention, stripping and repeated beatings during a hospital raid in February.
𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 | WFP delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in first successful convoy to the north since 20 February.
With people in northern #Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day + we need entry points directly into the north. pic.twitter.com/RGxymQXlR9
— WFP Media (@WFP_Media) March 12, 2024
It’s just after 7am (05:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
Here are some of the latest developments overnight:
Israeli forces launched air attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens, including 10 people in Deir el-Balah, according to Wafa.
At least four Palestinians were killed during Israeli raids on multiple locations in the occupied West Bank. The latest victim was a young man who was shot in a hospital ground in Jenin.
A UN official said a World Food Programme aid convoy transported food to northern Gaza using an Israeli military road near its security fence with the enclave.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said two of its fighters have been killed in the Bekaa Valley after Israeli warplanes launched attacks on the area for a second consecutive day.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is “not a natural disaster” and has accused Israel of using starvation as a “weapon of war”.
