Israel and Hamas downplayed chances of an early breakthrough in ceasefire talks, a day after US President Joe Biden said it was imminent.
This is how things stand on Tuesday, February 28, 2024:
Struggles and humanitarian crisis
- Gaza's Health Ministry said in its most recent daily update that 96 people were killed and 172 injured in the past 24 hours.
- The Palestinian Red Crescent also released images of its ambulance crews searching for survivors under rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah.
- Meanwhile, a two-year-old Palestinian boy named Khaled died after eating bread made from animal feed in the northern Gaza Strip.
- The U.N. Population Fund said the Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital in the city of Rafah, on the southern edge of Gaza, reported that newborns were dying because mothers could not receive prenatal or postnatal care.
- Now, the prospect of an invasion of Rafah has sparked global alarm over the fate of nearly 1.4 million civilians trapped there. [I’m afraid we’ve been oscillating between 1.4 and 1.5 million]
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- Israel and Hamas on Tuesday downplayed chances of an imminent breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire talks, after US President Joe Biden said Israel had agreed to pause its offensive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan if An agreement is reached to free some captives. .
- Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been working to negotiate a ceasefire that would allow Hamas to free some of the captives it is holding in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
- And as the war rages on, with aid deliveries by UN trucks hampered by a lack of safe corridors, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France airdropped food, medical supplies and other aid into Gaza on Tuesday.
- On a beach in southern Gaza, boxes of supplies dropped from military planes by parachutes as thousands of Palestinians ran across the sand to retrieve them.
- Elsewhere, in the United States, President Joe Biden renewed his call for lawmakers to pass a foreign aid bill that includes $14 billion for Israel, as well as assistance for Ukraine and Taiwan.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- In the West Bank, the Israeli army stormed the city of Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, the Wafa news agency reported.
- Wafa said Israeli forces, supported by military vehicles and bulldozers, have destroyed infrastructure, including roads, in both the city and the camp.
