The Palestinian Ministry of Health says famine in northern Gaza has reached dangerous levels with 25 people dying of hunger and dehydration.
Here’s how things stand on Sunday, March 10, 2024:
Ramped-up attacks and a humanitarian crisis
- An infant and a young woman have died of malnutrition in northern Gaza, bringing the number of known starvation deaths to 25.
- People in Rafah have been desperately lining up to get water from supply trucks as Israel has destroyed pipes across the strip. Rights groups have accused Israel of using water and food, as weapons of war. The mayor of Jabalia told Al Jazeera that Israel has destroyed three out of four water wells in the north.
- The United States says a navy logistics vessel has set sail for the Eastern Mediterranean to establish a temporary pier in Gaza to deliver aid.
- At least 13 Palestinians seeking refuge in Khan Younis have been killed by Israeli shelling on their tents. An air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp killed another 13 women and children.
- One of Rafah’s largest residential towers was hit by an Israeli strike on Saturday, displacing hundreds of people.
- Five people were killed in attacks on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. An aid worker employed at a US charity has also been killed in the area. The death toll now stands at 30,960, with 72,524 wounded.
- Sweden will resume funding to UNRWA, with an initial $20m disbursement, following similar steps from Canada this week.
- The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) said its last remaining office in Gaza has been destroyed in an Israeli attack.
Regional tensions
- Hezbollah claims it struck an Israeli army base with a Burkan rocket on Saturday. The Israeli military denied there was any damage and responded with a strike towards the launch site in Lebanon, an Israeli military statement added.
- An Israeli strike killed a family of five and injured nine other people in a village in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Lebanese security sources said on Saturday.
- US President Joe Biden in an MSNBC interview made contradictory statements, saying he would continue to support Israel while also warning that there are “red lines” Tel Aviv should not cross in the war on Gaza.
- The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday it shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea area. The Houthis have been targeting Israeli-linked ships as well as US and UK ships demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- A group of settlers installed a mobile home on Saturday on Palestinian land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, Wafa reports. A local official told the Palestinian news agency that Israeli forces have prevented residents from accessing their lands in northern Sinjil since October 7.
- In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, Israeli soldiers seized a tractor and chased Palestinian farmers and shepherds off their pasture as they attempted to reclaim occupied land, according to Wafa.
- Settlers destroyed tombstones in the Bab ar-Rahma Cemetery, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Wafa reported. At least 10 graves were damaged in the assault.
