Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Khan Younis hospitals out of food

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We will be closing the live blog soon. Here is a recap of the day’s main events.

• Palestinian officials accused Israeli forces of carrying out “execution-style” killings in Gaza following reports of 30 bodies discovered in a mass grave with blindfolds and tied hands.
• A UN report found that unemployment in Gaza reached nearly 80 percent in December, as Israel’s assault continues to take a heavy toll on all aspects of life.
• Debate continues over the contours of a potential deal between Israel and Hamas, with Netanyahu reiterating that he would not accept a deal that ends the war or includes the release of thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
• A Doctors Without Borders official said that Israeli forces have rejected aid deliveries to north Gaza “almost systematically” and that medical facilities have come under consistent attack by Israeli forces.
• UNRWA said that it has been forced to suspend operations in Khan Younis amid intense fighting. Meanwhile, humanitarian groups have urged Western nations to restore funding to the agency, while Netanyahu has called for UNRWA’s “termination”.

About half of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders say the US is not “supportive enough” of Palestinians in the current conflict in Gaza, says US news site Axios.

According to the site, this demographic is a crucial voting bloc that US President Joe Biden will need to court if he hopes to win re-election this November when the US will again vote for president.

Forty-nine percent of this group disagrees with the way Biden is handling Israel’s war on Hamas, and this could be significant in the elections.

One of our top stories today is the discovery of these bodies in northern Gaza, and many questions remain on how these people died and even on their identities.

“We were shocked to find a mass grave inside the schoolyard,” one man who aided in their recovery told Al Jazeera.

“Those are Palestinian civilians, blindfolded and handcuffed at the back. The bodies were kept in black plastic bags”, he continued.

Watch our video to learn more:

Former Israel Security Agency chief Ami Ayalon has given an interview to US broadcaster CNN, in which he said: “The major defeat for Hamas is a future of two states.”

“Unless we should discuss the future of two states, there is no way to defeat Hamas and to create a better political horizon for Palestinians and for Israelis,” he added.

Ayalon went on to criticise Israeli leaders’ stance against a two-state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu has come out strongly and repeatedly against any Palestinian future state, against the position of Israel’s closest ally, the US.

Palestinian photographer Amr Tabsh has published videos on Instagram showing Palestinian children, displaced in Rafah, trying to get a meal.

The footage shows a number of children lining up, waiting for their turn to have their pots filled with some food. Unfortunately, Tabsh said, some did not succeed in getting any of the limited food before it ran out.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and British Defense Minister Grant Shapps met on Wednesday to discuss efforts to avoid escalation in the Middle East and joint strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, according to the White House.

Meanwhile, British news outlet The Telegraph also reported that the UK is preparing to send an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, where the Houthis have continued to carry out strikes in what the Iran-backed group says in an effort to push for an end to the war in Gaza.

“We’ve been hearing the sound of the buzzing of Israeli surveillance drones in Rafah, an area widely attacked in the past few hours,” says Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

He said that several Palestinians had been killed after Israeli bombs destroyed a civilian car on the main road that links Khan Younis and Rafah.

“This attack had been carried out within the Rafah district areas including one of the victims, a young boy, with different injuries [who] had been transported to al-Najjar Hospital,” he said.

He added that a number of Palestinians were killed and seven others wounded near al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in widespread and ongoing Israeli artillery shelling of the area.

Earlier, we reported on a statement from the Palestine Red Crescent saying that al-Amal Hospital, the organisation’s Khan Younis headquarters, had received the bodies of seven Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.

The Israeli news outlet Channel 12 has reported that Mossad chief David Barnea has presented the Israeli war cabinet with a prospective nine-point outline of a potential deal to release 136 captives who remain in Gaza.

The first stage of the deal would include the release of 35 captives in exchange for a 35-day truce, with an emphasis on women, sick, injured and elderly captives.

The truce could then be extended to allow for discussion regarding the second round of releases, which would include men and members of civil defence groups, whom Hamas considers combatants.

The report does not offer details regarding the number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons but suggests that Israel would prioritise the release of low-level prisoners. Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians since the beginning of the war, including many women, children, and others who have been held under administrative detention.

New research has found that the carbon footprint of the war in Gaza is greater than the annual emissions of 20 small countries.

Watch our video to learn more about the toll the conflict is taking on our planet:

In a video message released on his X account, the Israeli PM says that Israel has “red lines” in its ongoing negotiations to strike a deal that would see Israeli captives held in Gaza released.

“We will not end the war, we will not pull the [Israeli military] out of the Strip, we will not release thousands of terrorists,” Netanyahu said in his message.

The prime minister said that in addition to working to get the captives out, Israel is working towards its other goals in the war – “the elimination of Hamas and to ensure that Gaza never again represents a threat”.

“We are working on all three of them together, and we will not give up on any of them.”

Earlier today, we reported on a meeting Netanyahu held with members of the captives’ families, during which he assured them he was doing everything he could to bring their loved ones home. He also said that the less the information about this effort was made public, the more likely it was to succeed.

This meeting came after Netanyahu’s office last week accused a family member of leaking comments he made critical of Qatar’s mediator role between Israel and Hamas in the conflict thus far.

Raed Shteiwi, a spokesman for the Fatah movement in the northern occupied West Bank city, says that Israeli soldiers also detained 30 Palestinians since the beginning of this year.

“Israeli forces are isolating the city from surrounding Palestinian villages, and increasingly erecting military checkpoints to the entrances, as part of a policy of collective punishment,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Residents are suffering economically as well from the continuous closures, as occupation forces continue to close stores and impose a siege on the city. They even installed an iron gate at the entrance to Qalqilya, which witnesses daily raids and arrest campaigns.”

Leo Cans, the director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for the Palestinian territories, has said that Israel is “almost systematically” rejecting humanitarian assistance deliveries to northern Gaza and that the health system is experiencing unimaginable strain.

“I saw a majority of women and children among the hospital patients. It’s the first time we’ve seen this, even though we’ve worked with my colleagues in other war situations, in Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan,” Cans said in an interview with the news outlet AFP. “For us, it’s clear proof that the bombings are indiscriminate.”

He also noted that assaults on medical facilities have become a common feature of Israel’s offensive.

“Since the start of the war, there have been systematic attacks on health facilities, which is unprecedented for MSF,” he said. “In war, these places are always sensitive areas and there are always incidents, but this is systematic.”

The midwestern US city has become the largest in the country to pass a ceasefire resolution.

A video posted by a local reporter shows applause breaking out as the results of the vote are announced in the city’s council.

“Chicago becomes the largest American city to call for a Gaza cease-fire after a monthslong debate [and] a tense meeting where spectators were cleared out,” reporter Jake Sheridan said in a social media post.

“Huge win for local pro-Palestine groups and progressive aldermen.”

Analysis from Reuters news service that some 70 US cities have passed resolutions on the Israel-Gaza war, with most calling for a ceasefire, placing more pressure on President Joe Biden ahead of November’s general election to help end the fighting.

David Cameron says on X that he spoke to Mohammed bin Salman about the “UK’s goal of an immediate humanitarian pause in Gaza, without a return to fighting”.

The UK is among the closest US allies to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop trucks from delivering humanitarian assistance into Gaza, saying that allowing aid into the strip harms Israeli unity.

Ben-Gvir sent the letter to Netanyahu today, noting that Israeli protesters have been trying to block aid deliveries from entering Gaza for days.

“The people of Israel are now fighting a war that has no choice but to defend the State of Israel against those who oppose it, and these images harm the unity of the people, the social cohesion and the war effort,” the letter states. “In light of the above, I demand an immediate halt to the passage of the trucks through the border crossings.”

Israeli protesters, including family members of captives still held in Gaza, have been staging protests at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) boundary crossing with the strip, physically blocking aid trucks from entering the enclave.

The Palestine Red Crescent says on X that the bodies it received at its headquarters in Khan Younis today included a member of its staff. It also said that it received nine injuries.

“Despite ongoing bombardment and gunfire, the medical teams at PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis persist in treating the wounded and patients,” it said.

The hospital has been under constant Israeli attack for some days now. Earlier, the Gaza Health Ministry said that it had run out of food, and last night, the PRCS accused Israeli forces of “storming” the hospital.

“The siege and targeting have endured for the tenth consecutive day,” its post added.

According to Mohammad Elayyan, head of the Palestinian committee to defend the right of refugees to return to their homes, says the decision to cut funds to the UN agency is consistent with Israeli attempts “to liquidate UNRWA, in an effort to erase the issue of refugees”.

“Instead of defunding UNRWA, these countries should have taken immediate steps to stop the war on Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Some Western countries have shown their true colours: their bias against Palestinians, and support for Israel’s occupation, by adopting similar positions, and repeating their same allegations and narrative.”

Here are some comments made by US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby from a press briefing at the White House:

• “We are looking at an extended pause [in fighting] as the goal … longer than what we saw in November, which was about a week.”
• “The goal of an extended level pause is so you can get the maximum amount of [Israeli] hostages out … [this] is all a part of the discussions right now.”
• The talks we are having on the pause and hostages are constructive, and we believe they are moving in the right direction.
• The recent attack in Jordan was sparked by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which includes multiple groups.
• We will do what is necessary to hold those responsible for the recent attack in Jordan accountable.
• We will respond at a time of our choosing to the latest attack in Jordan, and monitor the situation on the ground.
• We do not seek war with Iran or a broader war in the region.
• We do not trust what the Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq says, and it is not the only one launching attacks on our forces.
• We can respond to the latest attack on our forces and continue working to release the Israeli hostages at the same time.

The EU’s foreign policy chief has echoed the sentiments of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, saying that UNRWA responded swiftly after Israel alleged that some of its employees had taken part in the October 7 attacks.

“Its life-saving work is the backbone of humanitarian response in Gaza. UN members must guarantee it,” he said.

Earlier, Guterres defended the work of the UN’s Palestine refugee agency, after a number of Western countries said they would pull their funding to it.