Here’s how things stand on Sunday, March 24, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- Israeli warplanes have carried out strikes on Khan Younis, with explosions and gunfire reported near the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza City. At least 14 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes overnight on Rafah and Deir el-Balah.
- Mediation efforts to end Israel’s war on Gaza appear to be stalling. A Hamas official told Al Jazeera that Israeli negotiators have rejected the latest proposal for a ceasefire.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has again called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, during a visit to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing. “Any further onslaught will make things even worse – worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region,” Guterres said.
- Guterres called the starvation inside the besieged enclave a “moral outrage”. Israel has been restricting the entry of trucks into the Strip – creating a backlog of vehicles loaded with supplies on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
- A Chinese-owned oil tanker was attacked off Yemen on Saturday by ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have intensified strikes on Red Sea shipping, the US military said. The Houthis demand Israel end its war on Gaza.
- The US military’s Central Command said its forces “engaged” six Houthi drones over the southern Red Sea on Saturday.
Demonstrators hold a banner reading ‘Stop genocide in Gaza, Save Gaza’ during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Milan, Italy, on Saturday [Luca Bruno/AP Photo]
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- The United States has made a “bridging proposal” for the number of jailed Palestinians to be released by Israel in exchange for every captive freed by Hamas in any new Gaza truce, an Israeli official briefed on the Qatar-hosted talks told the Reuters news agency on Saturday. An Israeli delegation has been holding indirect negotiations with the Palestinian group Hamas in Doha.
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will travel on Sunday to Washington, DC to discuss with US officials developments on a captive exchange deal with Hamas, his office said on Saturday.
- The US has officially stopped UNRWA funding at least until March 2025 after President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan funding bill into law.
- An Israeli captive soldier in Gaza died due to a shortage of medicine and food, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said on Saturday. The Israeli army has also confirmed the news of the death of its soldier.
- Three people have been wounded by Israeli air strikes on Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek overnight, one of which hit a two-storey building, an AFP correspondent said early on Sunday. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced on both sides of the border in exchange of fire since October 7.
- Thousands of Israelis have staged a demonstration for the release of captives held by the Hamas. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Tel Aviv, said demonstrators demanded the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
- Pro-Palestinian solidarity protests have continued across Europe. People calling for a ceasefire marched on Saturday in Vienna, Milan, Berlin and Dublin among other cities.
Israeli soldiers stand on the boundary with Gaza, as aid trucks carrying humanitarian supplies wait to enter Gaza through Gate 96, a newly opened entry point allowing quicker access into northern Gaza, in Israel on March 21, 2024. Aid agencies have urged Israel to allow aid into Gaza, as the Palestinian enclave is on the verge of famine [Amir Cohen/Reuters]
