Twenty Palestinians were killed in the early hours of Tuesday in Rafah, as the UN warns that Gaza could be hit by famine between mid-March and May.
This is how things stand on Tuesday, March 19, 2024:
Struggles and humanitarian crisis
Twenty Palestinians were killed in the early hours of Tuesday in Israeli airstrikes on Rafah and central parts of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials. At least six people were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
- Israeli forces bombed a house in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Monday, killing at least eight Palestinians, including children, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire after a new report warned that northern Gaza could be hit by famine any time between mid-March and May.
- Al Jazeera Arab correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was released on Monday after being detained for 12 hours and brutally beaten by Israeli forces at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
- According to the White House, Israel killed a top Hamas commander, Marwan Issa, in an airstrike last week.
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed to have their teams meet in Washington, DC, to discuss “alternative approaches” to a ground offensive in Rafah, according to the White House.
- The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Monday it destroyed “seven anti-ship missiles, three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and three weapons storage containers” in strikes against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
- Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, has urged the United States to do more to end the ongoing hunger and hunger crisis in Gaza.
- Separately, EU foreign ministers on Monday “unanimously” approved sanctions against violent settlers harassing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- The Israeli army arrested three Palestinians from the Qalqilya governorate in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported on Monday.
- Two men were arrested after Israeli forces stormed their homes in the town of Azzun, while a third man was arrested in the town of Kafr Thulth, both east of the city of Qalqilya.
- On Monday, the Israeli army also arrested a man in the Jabal al-Sharif area of Hebron, while in the Balata camp, east of the city of Nablus, Palestinian groups attacked an excavator with an explosive device following a raid Israeli in the area. .
