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Children among rising number of dead found after Israeli attack on Gaza residential block, say local officials
The death toll from an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya area of Gaza City has risen to 29 Palestinians, Reuter reports. Local health authorities said the deaths included children.
The Israeli military said in a statement it struck a senior Hamas militant responsible for planning and executing attacks from Shujaiya in northern Gaza, whom it did not identify. The military said several steps were taken before the attack to mitigate harm to civilians.
Local health authorities said nine other Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli military strikes in other parts of the territory, raising Wednesday’s death toll to 38.
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The death toll from suspected US airstrikes that pounded the area around Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeida (see 9.44am BST) has risen to at least 10 people, according to the Houthis. The rebels also aired footage they said showed the debris left after shooting down yet-another American MQ-9 Reaper drone.
The strikes on Tuesday night hit around Hodeida’s al-Hawak district, the rebels said, and injured 16 people.
Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat is in Washington to lay the groundwork for US president Donald Trump’s upcoming visit, the first foreign trip of his second term, a Saudi government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.
Last month, Trump said he may visit Saudi Arabia as early as April in a reprisal of 2017, when the oil-rich, conservative kingdom was the first destination of his first term in office.
Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Washington on Tuesday, aiming to “prepare for Trump’s visit to Riyadh”, the source close to the Saudi government told AFP.
The source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said “developments in Gaza, Yemen and Syria” were also on Prince Faisal’s agenda.
The official Saudi Press Agency said Prince Faisal was to meet his US counterpart Marco Rubio to discuss “key regional and international developments”.
In January, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, promised to pile $600bn into US trade and investments. Trump later said Saudi Arabia had agreed to “spend close to a trillion dollars … in our American companies, which to me means jobs”.
Trump forged close relations with Riyadh in his first term and is expected to push Saudi Arabia towards normalising ties with Israel as a major foreign policy objective.
The US state department said on Tuesday it was aware of the killing by Israeli forces of a Palestinian American teenager in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was seeking more information about the incident, reports Reuters.
A state department spokesperson made the comments to reporters when asked about the killing of US citizen Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, and the shooting of two other teenagers.
“We are certainly aware of that dynamic,” the state department spokesperson said. “There is an investigation that is going on. We are aware of the reports from the IDF that this was a counter-terrorism act, we need to learn more about the nature of what happened on the ground.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the weekend incident as an “extra-judicial killing” by Israeli forces during a raid. A local mayor said Rabea was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him.
The Israeli military said it shot a “terrorist” who endangered civilians by hurling rocks.
“We don’t have the complete picture of what was going on on the ground,” the state department spokesperson added.
The family of the teenager, who was a New Jersey native, said he was shot multiple times. Local community leaders gathered at the Palestinian American community centre in Clifton, New Jersey, on Tuesday to pay tribute to him and demand justice.
Six weeks since Israel imposed total Gaza blockade, ‘all basic supplies are running out’ says Unrwa
Six weeks since Israel completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out, while emergency meal distributions are ending, bakeries are closed and markets are empty, reports Reuters.
Aid agencies that have been supplying emergency meals say they will have to stop within days unless they can bring in more food.
The World Food Programme used to provide bread at 25 bakeries across the Gaza Strip. All of those bakeries are now shut. It will soon have to halt distribution of food parcels at reduced rations.
“All basic supplies are running out,” said Juliette Touma from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa). She said:
The prices of commodities have exponentially increased over the past one month plus since the Israeli authorities put the siege on the Gaza Strip.
It means babies, children are going to bed hungry. Every day without these basic supplies, Gaza inches closer towards very, very deep hunger.”
According to Reuters, a 25 kilo sack of flour that used to sell for $6 now costs ten times as much, while a litre of cooking oil – if it can be located – costs $10 instead of $1.50.
“Food distributions have almost stopped altogether, with remaining stocks now diverted to keep hot meal distributions going for a few more days, but that will soon finish too,” said Gavin Kelleher, an access manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Deir al-Balah.
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières says it is encountering children and pregnant women with severe malnutrition, and lactating mothers are themselves too hungry to be able to breastfeed.
Israel denies that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis. The military accuses the Hamas militants who have run Gaza of exploiting aid, and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent the fighters from getting it.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is acting in accordance with the directives of the political echelon. Israel is not transferring and will not transfer aid to the hands of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The ministry of foreign affairs said 25,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the 42 days of the ceasefire – before it shut the border at the start of March – and that Hamas had used the aid to rebuild its war machine.
Hamas denies exploiting aid and accuses Israel of using starvation as a military tactic.
The Trump administration has reversed sweeping cuts in emergency food aid to several nations while maintaining them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries, officials said Wednesday.
The United States had initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries, part of a dramatic reduction of foreign aid led by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Aid officials warned the cuts would deny food to millions of people and end health programs for women and children.
The administration informed the World Food Program of its reversal on Tuesday, according to two UN officials. An official with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed that Jeremy Lewin, the Musk associate overseeing the dismantling of USAID, ordered the reversal of some of his weekend contract terminations after The Associated Press reported them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, AP reported.
The WFP said Monday it had been notified that USAID was cutting funding to the UN agency’s emergency food program in 14 countries.
Funding has been restored for programs in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador, according to the USAID official and one of the UN officials. The status of funding for six other unidentified countries was not immediately clear.
One of the UN officials said the decision to restore funding came after intense behind-the-scenes lobbying of members of Congress by senior UN officials.
The cuts could prove disastrous for millions in Afghanistan and Yemen, reeling from decades of war and US-led campaigns against militants.
Children among rising number of dead found after Israeli attack on Gaza residential block, say local officials
The death toll from an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya area of Gaza City has risen to 29 Palestinians, Reuter reports. Local health authorities said the deaths included children.
The Israeli military said in a statement it struck a senior Hamas militant responsible for planning and executing attacks from Shujaiya in northern Gaza, whom it did not identify. The military said several steps were taken before the attack to mitigate harm to civilians.
Local health authorities said nine other Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli military strikes in other parts of the territory, raising Wednesday’s death toll to 38.
Here are some of the latest images that have been shared via the newswires:
Israel army says targeted ‘senior Hamas’ militant in strike that hit Gaza block
The Israeli military said it targeted a senior Hamas militant on Wednesday in a strike that local health authorities said had killed at least 26 Palestinians, including children.
When asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP) about the strike in the city’s Shujaiya neighbourhood, the military said it “struck a senior Hamas terrorist who was responsible for planning and executing terrorist attacks” from the area. It did not give the target’s name, reports AFP.
Andrew Sparrow
Almost 40 MPs and peers in the UK have signed a letter organised by politician Jeremy Corbyn calling for an independent inquiry into the government’s role in the war in Gaza.
In the letter, they say the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 61,000 and that “Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations, including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in Cyprus”.
They say an inquiry should establish what decisions were taken and what the consequences were, and that ministers from the last Conservative government and the current Labour one should cooperate fully. They add:
Many people believe the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law.
These charges will not go away until there is a comprehensive, public, independent inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth.
The letter has been signed by 37 MPs and peers, from the Labour party, Sinn Féin, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, as well as independents.
In a message on social media where he has posted the letter, Corbyn says:
Last month, I wrote to the prime minister calling for an independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Today, more than 30 MPs have supported that call.
This is not going away. We will campaign for as long as it takes to establish the truth.
All seven Sinn Féin MP have signed the letter. In a statement explaining why, the Sinn Féin Chris Hazzard said:
For 18 months now, the Israeli army has continually attacked the defenceless population of Gaza, while world leaders turn a blind eye to these barbaric and inhumane actions.
Some members of the international community are complicit in the ongoing genocide, displacement and apartheid targeting the Palestine people.
This letter calls for a public inquiry into the British government’s role in the war on Gaza, and how it has assisted Netanyahu’s reckless and out-of-control regime.
While Israel must be held fully accountable for its flagrant breaches of international law, we also must establish what role successive British governments have played in this war.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday Iran has no objection to US investors doing business in the country but the country firmly opposes any attempts at regime change or foreign interference, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The leader has no objection to the presence of American investors in the country,” Pezeshkian said of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on state television. “We oppose their flawed policies, such as conspiracies and attempts at regime change.”
Iran has had no diplomatic relations with Washington since 1980, but is to hold nuclear talks with US officials in Oman on Saturday.
The talks follow a letter sent by US president Donald Trump on 7 March, urging Khamenei to resume nuclear negotiations and warning of possible military action if Iran refuses.
Tehran responded weeks later, saying it was open to indirect negotiations and dismissed the possibility of direct talks as long as the US maintains its “maximum pressure” policy. “The leader said that we are ready to negotiate, but not in direct negotiations because we do not trust them,” Pezeshkian said.
Death toll from Israeli attack on residential block rises
The death toll from an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya area of Gaza City has risen to 26 Palestinians, local health authorities said, according to Reuters. The number includes children, local health authorities said on Wednesday.
Medics said dozens of others were injured in the attack that hit a multi-floor residential building in the eastern suburb of Gaza City. They said many were still believed to be missing and trapped under the ruins of the building. The strike damaged several other houses nearby, medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.