Israel’s war on Gaza updates: US confirms humanitarian aid airdrops
US and Jordan airdrop 38,000 meals, but experts say US needs to put pressure on Israel to allow more aid in by land.
- This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
- The US confirms that it has airdropped 38,000 meals to Gaza in coordination with Jordan, but experts say the aid does not make up for Israeli restrictions on the transfer of food into the enclave via land crossings.
- This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
- The US confirms that it has airdropped 38,000 meals to Gaza in coordination with Jordan, but experts say the aid does not make up for Israeli restrictions on the transfer of food into the enclave via land crossings.
- At least 11 killed and 50 wounded after Israeli air attack on a tent housing displaced people next to the entrance of a hospital in Rafah City, the Health Ministry says.
- At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in Israeli air strikes targeting three houses in Deir el-Balah and Jabalia.
- A United Nations team has found many injured in Thursday’s Israeli attack on Palestinians awaiting food aid have gunshot wounds. The director of al-Awda Hospital says 80 percent of the wounded brought to the hospital had been shot. The Ministry of Health in Gaza announces that the death toll from the food aid “massacre” has risen to 118.
- At least 30,320 people have been killed and 71,533 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
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Here’s what happened today
We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events:
- The US military confirmed its first airdrop of limited aid to the Gaza Strip with Jordanian help, despite criticism of its effectiveness.
- More mediated talks between Hamas and Israel are expected in Cairo, where a framework agreement for a six-week truce and exchange of prisoners is on the table, as Israel continues to pound the southern and central parts of Gaza.
- Thousands protested in Tel Aviv and other places in Israel to demand a speedy return of captives in Gaza and early elections.
- The death toll in the Israeli attack on Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza City has reached 118, with more people in critical condition.
- Rubymar, the UK-owned ship Yemen’s Houthis hit with missiles, has now sunk.
Israeli bombing kills eight in Rafah: Wafa
The dead included three children, the news agency reported, after Israeli air attacks hit a home in eastern Rafah.
Dozens were reported to have been injured in the attack.
Palestinians injured after Jewish settlers attack Barqa in West Bank
The settler attack began on Saturday evening on the village near Ramallah, Sayil Kanaan, the head of the village council told Al Jazeera.
Kanaan estimated that 150 settlers attacked Barqa.
He said that locals noticed masked settlers hiding in trees near a home under construction.
The settlers began to throw stones, damaging a car as well as the windows of several homes.
“The residents were in fear and then some were forced to go and defend their homes,” said Kanaan. “They threw stones at the settlers and the settlers injured at least five people in the head after throwing stones at them.”
WATCH: Israeli forces killed them – these are their names and faces
In less than 150 days, Israeli forces have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank. These are just some of the people killed across both occupied territories every day of the siege.
Most victims listed here were killed by Israel’s attacks in Gaza. Others died from starvation after Israel blocked aid deliveries in Gaza. Some victims highlighted lived in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 400 Palestinians – including more than 100 children – since October 7.
Watch AJ+’s video below:
Airdrops ‘close to the worst way to deliver aid’, says former US disaster relief official
“You only resort to [airdrops] when there is something on the ground blocking you from using better forms of transportation,” Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former disaster relief official in the [former US President Barack] Obama and [US President Joe] Biden administrations, told Al Jazeera.
“They’re very expensive, they’re dangerous because there’s a lot that can go wrong when things drop and they deliver a very small volume of aid. Relative to the level of need that exists in Gaza today, this is not enough to make a meaningful dent in the humanitarian crisis.
“You have to ask, why is this necessary? Well, it’s necessary because over the last nearly five months, the Israeli military offensive has made it virtually impossible for normal humanitarian operations to exist in Gaza,” Konyndyk added.
“They could be opening more border crossings – they have refused to do that. Even the two crossings in the south that are open have seen their volumes decline in the last few weeks. And they’ve made it very difficult for humanitarian groups to operate within Gaza – there have been air strikes on humanitarian facilities, there was a naval strike on a UN food convoy heading to the north that was actually [previously] stopped at an Israeli checkpoint at the time.”
“So this resort to air strikes is a reflection of how impossible the Israeli government has made it to conduct normal and frankly more effective humanitarian operations inside Gaza.”
‘Good chance’ US-backed ceasefire will be agreed on
It would be “unwise” for Hamas to refuse the framework agreement with Israel that is on the table because Palestinians need even the six-week pause that it could bring, said HA Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
“It’s an incredibly desperate humanitarian situation in the Strip and any pause would be a respite for the people there,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hellyer said a sticking point in the ongoing mediated talks is which Palestinian prisoners Israel is willing to release in exchange for its captives in Gaza during a potential pause.
“I think there is a very good chance an agreement will be penned tomorrow in Cairo. I don’t think [political prisoner] Marwan Barghouti is likely to be part of that deal in the slightest, but I think that they will overcome that particular sticking point.”
Reports of intense Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah
The reports have come from both Israeli media outlets and Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza.
Israel’s Channel 12 said the military had begun “a wave of intensive air and ground attacks in the Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis area”.
Senior Houthi official taunts UK leaders on sunk ship, politics
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a senior member of the Yemeni group’s political council, was addressing UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the UK-owned Rubymar cargo vessel that sunk in the Red Sea earlier today.
“You and your government bear responsibility” and are also “responsible” for genocide in Gaza, he said on X.
Al-Houthi said the group could “salvage” the vessel, which was on the water for days after being hit with Houthi antiship missiles, if Sunak sent “a letter of guarantee, signed by George Galloway, that the relief trucks agreed upon at that time would enter Gaza”.
In a fractious week for UK politics, Galloway won the Rochdale by-election after a campaign centred on supporting Gaza, rattling the Labour Party and starting a war of words among top politicians.
Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, weighed in on Saturday by criticising Sunak and calling out “a concerted and growing attempt by some to degrade and humiliate minorities for political and electoral gain”.
Israel claims ‘excess capacity’ for Gaza aid despite overwhelming evidence
Israel continues to insist that it has no responsibility concerning the desperate lack of humanitarian aid going to Palestinians despite the UN and many others showing evidence to the contrary.
The idea that Israel is blocking aid is “simply a lie”, said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy on X. “There is no limit to the amount of food, water, medicine, or shelter equipment that can enter via Israel. There is EXCESS CAPACITY at Israel’s crossings for more to enter.”
This comes after Washington resorted to airdropping a limited amount of food into the Gaza Strip since aid could not enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled border crossings and after the killings in the aid convoy in which 118 people have died so far.
Israeli protesters have also repeatedly gathered at border crossings with Gaza to prevent aid from being taken into the enclave.
UNICEF chief says many children ‘on the brink’ of death from starvation in Gaza
Commenting after the death of 10 children in Gaza from malnutrition, UNICEF head Catherine Russell wrote in a social media post that one in six children in Gaza under the age of two are acutely malnourished.
“For children in Gaza, every minute counts in safely accessing nutrition, water, medical care & protection from bullets & bombs,” Russell wrote. “This requires a humanitarian ceasefire NOW.”
Severe malnutrition can be deadly or leave young children with permanent cognitive & physical damage.
For children in Gaza, every minute counts in safely accessing nutrition, water, medical care & protection from bullets & bombs.
This requires a humanitarian ceasefire NOW.— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) March 2, 2024
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard pledges ‘revenge’ for slain navy man in Syria
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has promised “revenge” for the assassination of its senior navy soldier in Syria in an Israeli air strike.
The force said in a short statement that it “reserves the right for revenge on the agents and perpetrators of this crime” and that the funeral for Colonel Reza Zarei will be held on Sunday in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.
The statement identified the 40-year-old Zarei as having 20 years of experience in the IRGC Navy and as a “military advisor” in Syria who was killed on Friday.
The two other people killed in the air strike were members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iranian media reported.
Israel has been intensifying its attempted assassinations of Iranian and Lebanese forces in Syria and Lebanon in the past few weeks.
More on killing of 13-year-old Palestinian in Jalazone camp
Mahdi Hamdan, the head of Jalazone Media Centre, told Al Jazeera that gunfire had been heard near Jalazone, and that news emerged about a child being injured.
However, it was an hour before the child, Mohammad Khaled Zaid, was found near the separation wall, close to the illegal settlement of Beit El.
“We reached him and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society tried to provide emergency first aid,” Hamdan said. “He was unconscious and didn’t have a heartbeat. He was transferred to Ramallah Government Hospital where it was announced that he had died.”
Ahmed Jibril of the PRCS said that Zaid had been shot in the back and left to bleed for nearly an hour. PRCS workers attempted to resuscitate him but failed.
Zaid was his parents’ only son, Hamdan said, adding that the child’s death had brought the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Jalazone since October 7 to six.
PIJ calls on Arab, Muslim countries to take up arms against Israel
The Quds Brigades armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) says Arab and Muslim countries should take up arms against Israel in a defiant statement carried by its spokesperson Abu Hamza.
“Is it not time for you to mobilise your weapons, following in the footsteps of the free people of Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq?” he said to countries that “possess armies, planes, and artillery” but have not intervened to stop the war on Gaza.
Abu Hamza also called on Arab and Muslim nations to make the first day of Ramadan – which is in about a week – a day of international support for Gaza.
“Just as you turn to God in prayer and fasting, turn to the land of Israel with weapons,” he told Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Gaza humanitarian aid ‘not nearly enough’: Biden
US President Joe Biden says in a post on X that the amount of aid going into the besieged Gaza Strip is insufficient after the US military dropped limited aid packages earlier today with the help of the Jordanian air force.
“The amount of aid flowing to Gaza is not nearly enough and we will continue to pull out every stop we can to get more aid in,” he said.
Israeli army denies intentionally killing people in aid convoy massacre
The spokesman for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, told a news conference that Israeli soldiers did not intentionally open fire on hungry Palestinians in the aid convoy massacre that left at least 118 dead and more in critical condition.
“This was a humanitarian operation we conducted, and the claim that we intentionally struck the convoy and intentionally harmed people is baseless,” he was quoted as saying by Times of Israel.
“We are investigating this incident, we have all the footage we need to complete an exhaustive investigation and find out the truth of the facts of this incident, and we will present the findings,” Hagari said.
The army had previously released edited drone footage of the incident and confirmed its soldiers fired on Palestinians, but claimed most were killed in a stampede – despite overwhelming eyewitness reports of Israel shooting at the crowd, and a UN team reporting that many of those injured had gunshot wounds.
Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
The child, 13-year-old Mohammad Khaled Zaid, was shot by Israeli forces near the Jalazone camp north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
We’ll have more details on this breaking story soon.
Israeli attack on displaced in tents ‘outrageous’: WHO chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, was reacting to the news earlier today that an Israeli attack on displaced Palestinians living in tents in Rafah had killed 11 people.
Ghebreyesus said the incident was “outrageous and unspeakable”, and added that two heath workers were among the dead.
“We urge [Israel] to cease fire,” he added.
Reports that tents sheltering displaced people in Rafah were bombed – reportedly killing 11 people and injuring 50, including children – are outrageous and unspeakable.
Among those killed are two health workers.
Health workers and civilians are #NotATarget, and must be…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 2, 2024
Israel open to a longer-term framework after military shortcomings
Israeli politicians “learned a lesson” after the agreement in November that secured a one-week ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and now appear more open to a longer-term solution, says Mahjoob Zweiri, director of Gulf Studies Centre at Qatar University.
“There are two obstacles. One is Netanyahu’s slogan for the day after, which basically indicates he doesn’t want to withdraw troops because he wants to control Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.
“And number two; he doesn’t want people to go back to northern Gaza from Rafah and the southern parts because he wants to create a new security status quo in the north. That is why we see Hamas insisting on those two elements.”
Zweiri said a main driver behind this interest for a new agreement is that the Israeli military has not been able to fully achieve its goals on the ground, with fighting still continuing in northern Gaza, where it claimed it had eliminated Hamas’s presence months ago.
Israeli military confirms three soldiers killed in Gaza
The Israeli army confirms three more soldiers are killed in Gaza, bringing the official death toll of its ground offensive to 245.
It confirmed that three 19-year-old sergeants, Dolev Malka, Afik Tery and Inon Yitzhak, were killed, and 14 other soldiers were wounded, six of them seriously.
They entered a building in Khan Younis in southern Gaza that was rigged with two explosive devices, which detonated.
The Israeli military claimed its soldiers killed several Hamas operatives in the area.
This appears to be the same incident that Hamas also reported several hours ago, saying its fighters detonated explosives after Israeli troops entered a building in a neighbourhood in northern Khan Younis.
WATCH: Calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza are growing louder
No Israeli reaction to US official’s suggestion of ceasefire agreement
There hasn’t been any Israeli reaction to this just yet, in fact, over the last week, the only thing we’ve been hearing about are impasses when it comes to this deal, and conflicting reports about where delegations are or are not being sent.
But remember, the entire time that there have been these talks, the Israelis have been discussing their red lines and the concessions that they are simply not willing to give up as part of a deal. That is, they’re not willing to see the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners as part of this deal.
It also comes as several Israeli media outlets report that there will not be an Israeli delegation going to the next round of talks.
Gaza rockets activate sirens near largest Israeli city in Negev desert
Sirens have sounded in a kibbutz called Hatzerim, near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba – the largest in the Negev desert.
The Israeli military said four long-range rockets were fired from Gaza, with Israeli media reporting the rockets also caused sirens to be activated in the Be’eri kibbutz bordering the besieged enclave.
Hatzerim is close to an Israeli air force base of the same name. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries caused by the rockets.
Israel’s Gantz to visit Washington, London without Netanyahu approval
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz is set to visit Washington and London in an uncoordinated trip that has reportedly angered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The head of the National Unity party, who has been tipped to replace Netanyahu if an election takes place, plans to be in the US on Sunday and then travel to the UK, Israeli media reported.
The reports cited unnamed Netanyahu associates as saying the prime minister has “made it clear to Minister Gantz that the State of Israel only has one prime minister”.
They said the trip runs against government regulations that require coordinating with the prime minister and securing approval for trips.
Reuters cited an unnamed US official as saying Gantz will meet Vice President Kalama Harris on Monday amid the Biden administration’s frustration with Netanyahu.
Former US ambassador says airdrops are ‘humiliation’
The former US ambassador to Algeria and Syria wrote in a social media post that – aside from a 1967 Israeli air raid on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 American crew – the US being forced to airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday were the worst-ever Israeli humiliation of the US.
“Forcing [the] USA to do airdrops of aid to Gaza as if [the] USA is no better than Egypt [and] Jordan is Israel’s worst humilitation of [the] USA [I’ve] ever seen,” Ford, who is now a fellow at the Middle East Institute, wrote.
“I should add that [the] USA will do humanitarian aid airdrops to Gazans if the Israeli Air Force graciously agrees not to shoot down the American planes over Gaza,” Ford added.
i've seen Israel humiliate previous US administrations, but aside from murderous 1967 Israeli airstrike against US navy ship Liberty, now forcing USA to do airdrops of aid to Gaza as if USA is no better than Egypt & Jordan is Israel's worst humiliation of USA i've ever seen.
— Robert Ford (@fordrs58) March 1, 2024