GAZA: Efforts stepped up on Thursday (March 14) to funnel more aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip, where the UN warned of impending famine and desperate residents stormed aid convoys.
After mediators failed to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins Monday, fighting continued with at least 69 deaths over the previous 24 hours, the health ministry in the Hamas-run region said.
Hamas authorities reported more than 40 airstrikes in Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza’s population sought refuge and Israel threatened a ground offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday doubled down on his pledge to attack Rafah, saying: “There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing our task.
“I will continue to resist pressure and we will enter Rafah… and bring complete victory to the Israeli people,” he said during a visit to a field intelligence base.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt at Rafah.
A Palestinian worker stands next to blood-stained aid boxes, at a UNRWA aid distribution center after an Israeli attack, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on March 13,…see more
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday evening that a large number of them need to be moved to the humanitarian area that we will create together with the international community.
The Israeli military stated on Thursday that it “raided Hamas military hideouts and strongholds” in the main city of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
“During a search of the area, troops found several weapons in the bedroom under the bed, including missiles and explosives. After a search of the area, troops found a rocket and missile launcher near a school and destroyed it.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said seven people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire at an aid distribution point near Gaza City. The military has not yet commented.
In central Israel, police said a Palestinian living in Gaza had stabbed a soldier at a shopping center, who then shot his attacker dead before later dying of his wounds.
“QATAR PRESSURE ON HAMAS”
The war began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, resulting in around 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an official AFP tally.
Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign and ground operations in Gaza, killing at least 31,341 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Hamas militants also held around 250 Israelis and foreigners hostage, dozens of whom were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November. Israel believes around 130 prisoners are still in Gaza and 32 people have died.
Activists and families of Israeli hostages continued to apply pressure to negotiate their release, and once again blocked a Tel Aviv highway in protest on Thursday. And in a sign of growing US anger towards Netanyahu, US Senate leader Chuck Schumer called for snap elections in Israel, and described the veteran hardliner as one of a number of “major obstacles” to a two-state solution and peace.
