Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Biden says US will air drop aid to enclave
Biden says US will be “pulling every stop” to get aid to Gaza, but reports indicate he will not back down from Israel support.
This live page is now closed. Following along with our continuing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
This live page is now closed. Following along with our continuing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
- US President Biden announces military air drops of humanitarian aid to Gaza, as WHO says Palestinians are risking their lives to find food, water and other supplies amid the unrelenting Israeli assault.
- Seven captives were killed as a result of the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza, according to an Qassam Brigade spokesperson.
- Fatalities reported in Gaza’s south after Israeli raid targets a house sheltering people who had been displaced from the north.
- Foreign ministries, aid groups and rights organisations denounce Israel’s “heinous massacre” that killed more than 100 people waiting to receive emergency food assistance in northern Gaza.
- At least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139.
Thank you for joining us
This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
To read more about the mounting global condemnation of the killing of Gaza aid seekers, read here.
To learn about the challenges of Israeli conscientious objectors to the war, read here.
And you can always find our latest news about the conflict here.
Here’s what happened today
We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events:
- US President Biden announced the US will start airdropping aid into Gaza in the “coming days”. The US is also working on a possible “maritime corridor”, his administration said.
- Israeli strikes killed and injured dozens of Palestinians from the north to the south, said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum from Rafah. Casualties were reported in Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah and Beit Hanoon.
- The death toll of aid seekers who were fired on by Israeli forces in Gaza City on Thursday has reached 115, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- Palestinian health officials and a UN team that visited al-Shifa Hospital said many Gaza City attack victims they observed had gunshot wounds, challenging the Israeli military narrative that most casualties were caused by a stampede.
- Hamas said seven Israeli captives were killed by recent Israeli bombardment.
- An Israeli military general warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could stage protests during Ramadan.
Dead, injured arrive at hospital after Deir el-Balah bombing
A number of dead and injured have arrived at Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the Israeli bombing of two houses and a mosque.
Video footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows at least three dead bodies, including children.
Several ambulances arrived at the hospital in the middle of the night carrying the bodies of those killed, as well as injured people needing treatment.
Belgian MP says more needs to be done after international parliamentarians sign Israel arms embargo letter
Simon Moutquin, a member of the Belgian parliament and one of the signatories to the letter, told Al Jazeera that his own country had to act to stop Israel.
“As a signatory country of the Convention Against Genocide, [Belgium has] a legal and moral obligation to act and prevent the risk of genocide, so I think this letter … is a good first step, but we need to go further,” Moutquin said.
Speaking about European divisions on Gaza, Moutquin said that Europe risked its credibility to speak on Russia’s actions in Ukraine if it remained silent on Gaza.
“We need to really speak about international law,” he said. “We are so hypocritical in Europe to speak about international law when we speak about Ukraine and Russia, [but] if we don’t have the same [views] when we speak about the Palestinians, we will not have any credit in the future to speak about [it].”
Will Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community serve in its military?
There is a renewed push to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the Israeli military.
Israel has called on its reserves to wage its ground war on Gaza. But its ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has an exemption to military service going back decades.
Now, the defence minister says they need to join the fight. But can a national consensus be reached on such a divisive issue? And can Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government survive the fallout from such a policy change?
Watch the full episode below:
WHO provides fuel, medical supplies to al-Shifa Hospital
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the body and other aid groups have managed to reach al-Shifa Hospital to supply it with aid for the first time in more than a month.
The teams delivered 19,000 litres (about 5,000 gallons) of fuel to the north Gaza facility, as well as “lifesaving medical supplies for 150 patients and treatment for 50 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition”, Tedros said in a post on X.
However, he noted that the facility’s capacity remains “very limited” due to scarce “supplies, fuel, water, and food” and that it was relying on volunteers to treat more than 240 patients.
“The level of destruction around the hospital is beyond words,” he said.
After more than a month, @WHO and partners managed to access Al-Shifa hospital in northern #Gaza to deliver 19,000 litres of fuel; lifesaving medical supplies for 150 patients; and treatments for 50 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
Over 240 patients are being… pic.twitter.com/H3AYTLVbUG
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 1, 2024
In New York, Israeli conscientious objectors find community after ostracism
He feared being called a “mishtamet”. A draft dodger. Someone who shrinks from their responsibility.
But at age 17, Jewish social worker Asaf Calderon made a fateful decision: not to participate in the mandatory military service required of nearly all Israeli citizens.
Instead, he pursued and was granted a medical exemption for mental health reasons. Still, his choice came with a cost.
A soft-spoken man with round glasses and a tender smile, Calderon, 34, noticed that, afterwards, his friends started to seem distant. Members of his family fell out of contact.
He realised his decision had left him a pariah in Israel, even among his loved ones. He eventually moved away to New York City.
“It doesn’t matter why you do it,” Calderon said of becoming a conscientious objector, someone who refuses to participate in military service on ethical or moral grounds. “You are going to get ostracised in a way.”
Report: Biden’s staff taking ‘extraordinary’ steps to avoid pro-Palestinian protesters
The US president’s team is carefully organising his public appearances so as to minimise “disruptions from pro-Palestinian protests”, reports NBC News.
This includes keeping his public events smaller, not disclosing their exact location ahead of time, and staying away from college campuses, the US outlet said, citing a Biden ally and a source “familiar with his planning”.
The measures come after Biden was interrupted more than a dozen times by pro-Palestinian protesters while speaking at a campaign rally in January.
Protesters at the January 23 event shouted phrases such as “ceasefire now”, “let Gaza women live”, and “genocide Joe”.
Wafa: Child in Rafah among victims of latest Israeli strikes
The latest round of Israeli strikes this evening have caused dozens of casualties, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency. They include:
- One child killed and others injured from Israeli bombardment on the Yibna refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza.
- Numerous killed and injured from Israeli bombardment on a home in Beit Hanoon, northern Gaza.
- One man killed by Israeli drone fire in the village of Maghraqa in central Gaza.
- Several injured by Israeli artillery fire in eastern Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
UNRWA ‘irreplaceble’ says EU foreign policy chief
The comments were made by Josep Borrell as he announced continued European Union funding for the UNRWA.
In a statement released today, the European Commission announced that it would give 50 million euros ($54.2m) to UNRWA next week, part of the 150 million euros ($162.5m) it plans to give in 2024.
“By continuing to fund it, the EU acknowledges UNRWA as an irreplaceable actor,” Borrell said in a social media post, before adding that Israel should provide evidence to back the allegations it has made about links between UNRWA and Hamas.
Several countries, including the US, suspended funding to UNRWA, the primary UN agency providing relief to Palestinians in Gaza, after Israel alleged ties between the agency and Hamas. The UN says that Israel has yet to present any evidence to support its claims.
The 1st transfer is already an important step to alleviate the situation in Gaza.
By continuing to fund it, the EU acknowledges UNRWA as an irreplaceable actor.
I commend @UN efforts to investigate the allegations against UNRWA and call on Israeli authorities to provide evidences— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 1, 2024
Israeli military claims strike on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
In a post on X, Israel’s military said its fighter jets struck several Hezbollah military sites in the Lebanese town of Ramyeh near the border “a short time ago”.
The strikes killed at least one Hezbollah member, said the military’s post, which also shared purported footage of the attack.
Gaza hospital director: 80 percent of victims of Gaza City attack at his facility were hit by gunfire
Mohammed Salha, the acting director of al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, has confirmed that the vast majority of the Gaza City food aid attack victims brought to his health facility showed injuries from gunfire.
Of the 176 wounded who were brought to al-Awda Hospital, 142 had gunshot wounds, while the other 34 showed injuries from a stampede, Salha told the Associated Press.
He said he could not provide information on the cause of death of the victims who were killed because their bodies were transported to other facilities.
Earlier, a UN team who visited al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza also confirmed that many victims had been injured by gunfire.
CNN staff criticise network for Gaza coverage in meeting: Report
An all-hands meeting held by the US media network became an opportunity for several staff members, including star presenter Christine Amanpour, to criticise its coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, with many reflecting external criticism that the network has been biased towards Israel.
A recording obtained by The Intercept revealed Amanpour speaking of her “real distress” with CNN’s editorial process when it comes to coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, before she added that the network should have sent more experienced reporters to the region to cover the war.
Other staffers went further in their criticism, with one journalist who worked from Lebanon last year saying that she found CNN “platforming people over and over again, that are either calling for my death, or using very dehumanising language against me … and people that look like me”.
“I want to ask as well, what have you done, and what are you doing to address the hate speech that fills our air and informed our coverage, especially in the first few months of the war,” the journalist added, according to The Intercept.
CNN Editor-in-Chief Mark Thompson defended the network’s coverage in the meeting, saying that he was generally satisfied with it, and adding that it had been difficult to cover the Palestinian side because of a lack of access to Gaza.
Bernie Sanders calls for US to pressure Israel on aid
The progressive US senator said Washington had a responsibility to compel Israel to allow more aid in.
“The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death,” Sanders said in a statement.
“As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Whether Netanyahu’s right-wing government likes it or not, the United States must immediately begin to airdrop food, water, and other lifesaving supplies into Gaza,” Sanders added, before Biden made his own announcement that the US would be conducting humanitarian aid air drops.
UN: Many victims of Gaza City attack have gunshot wounds
During a visit to al-Shifa Hospital, a team from the United Nations was able to confirm that many people being treated there who were victims of Thursday’s attack near Gaza City “had gunshot wounds”, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general.
Speaking to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, Dujarric said the UN team observed “a large number of gunshot wounds” at the health facility, where many of Thursday’s wounded were taken.
While an Israeli military official conceded that troops “opened fire” at some Palestinians who moved in a way that “endangered” the troops, the Israeli army has blamed the aid-seekers’ deaths on trampling, crowding, and “Gaza truck drivers”.
Witnesses of the attack told Al Jazeera they were hit by direct Israeli artillery shelling, drone missiles and gunshots.
US to work on maritime corridor for Gaza aid
More US announcements on aid into Gaza, this time from White House spokesperson John Kirby.
He said Washington would redouble its efforts to establish a maritime corridor to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and would “continue to push Israel to facilitate more trucks going in and more routes being opened”.
Kirby said Cyprus could potentially be used as part of the maritime corridor and added that Thursday’s attack by Israel on Palestinians waiting for food aid in Gaza City underscored the need to continue to find alternative routes for getting aid into Gaza.
Israel – and by extension the US – have come under intense global criticism for Thursday’s attack, which has put the spotlight on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, with food and water scarce.
Chief of US government’s top aid agency: Israeli settler violence ‘must stop’
Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has shared footage of a visit she made to a Palestinian youth center in the occupied West Bank that has been shuttered due to frequent attacks from Israeli settlers.
“Repeated attacks by extremist Israeli settlers have forced its doors to close and sent shock waves of fear through the community, Power wrote on X. “This violence is intolerable and must stop.”
This youth center in the West Bank was once a place where thousands of Palestinians came together. Repeated attacks by extremist Israeli settlers have forced its doors to close and sent shock waves of fear through the community. This violence is intolerable and must stop. pic.twitter.com/nEG2qSpNZg
— Samantha Power (@PowerUSAID) March 1, 2024
More from Biden: US airdrops in Gaza to start in ‘coming days’
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said the US’s humanitarian aid drops into Gaza will begin in the “coming days”.
He also said the US was continuing to work towards a ceasefire that would allow even more aid to flow into the enclave. However, he previously acknowledged that the killing of at least 115 aid seekers in northern Gaza on Thursday – after Israeli forces opened fire in the area – could complicate these efforts.
The current amount of aid getting into Gaza, Biden said, is not enough to meet people’s needs, and he wants to see “hundreds” more aid trucks get in.
Survivor shares account of Gaza ‘flour massacre’
Yousri Alghoul, a Palestinian author who witnessed the mass shooting of aid seekers by Israeli forces, says people facing hunger in northern Gaza often head to the Nabulsi area in southwest Gaza City, where assistance trucks occasionally arrive during the absence of UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies.
He said Israeli forces target Palestinians there daily, but the scale of the violence early on Thursday was unprecedented as Israeli soldiers methodically opened fire at people with the aim to kill.
Alghoul told Al Jazeera in a voice note that Israeli snipers shot hundreds of victims in their upper bodies – in the chest and the head.
“It was a massacre, which is incredible. We were waiting just to get food,” he said. “We don’t have food. There’s starvation here in north Gaza. Even the food of animals, we don’t find it. We’re just eating plants.”
UNRWA: Gaza’s water supply down 93 percent since start of war, one-fourth of wells destroyed
The stark decline in water has pushed many Gaza residents, particularly in the north, to the point of severe dehydration.
In recent days, at least six Palestinian children have died from either dehydration, starvation or poisoning, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Since the war began, @UNRWA has delivered +23million litres of water to people in #Gaza
But over 1/4 of water wells have been destroyed & the water supply is at only 7% of pre-war levels
Food & water are basic needs. For the sake of humanity, #Gaza needs an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/LH9fkN9Woo
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 1, 2024
Galloway says UK election victory shows growing public support for Palestinian rights
Galloway, who ran for parliament in the northern English town of Rochdale on a pro-Palestine agenda, says his victory has “rumbled” the UK’s political class and shown rising public support for Palestinians.
“The political class in Britain are in a state of panic— both the Conservatives and Labour,” Galloway told Al Jazeera. “The toxic bubble of the political and media class virtually supports the genocide against the people of Gaza. But when you burst that bubble, you discover that among the general public … most people’s sympathies are on the side of the victims, not the perpetrators.”
Galloway, a veteran politician who previously served six terms as a member of parliament, promised to use his platform to lobby for Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
“I believe I am speaking for millions of people in Britain whose hearts are broken, whose guts are wrenched by the slaughter in Gaza,” said Galloway.
“I promise to do my best [in parliament] … I promised [former Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat in 1977 that I would never leave the Palestinians alone. And it’s a promise I’ve kept. I’ll keep it until my final breath.”
Biden: US will airdrop aid into Gaza
The US president says the amount of aid getting into Gaza is not nearly enough and the US will “pull every stop” to increase it.
This will include the US airdropping aid into Gaza, he added.
We’ll bring you more of Biden’s remarks shortly.
UK PM Sunak signals crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations in ‘chilling’ speech
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says that the UK has seen “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality”, in a speech delivered a week after the country’s parliament descended into chaos during a vote on a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sunak denounced what he perceived security threats against members of parliament, as well as the victory of left-wing George Galloway in a by-election on Thursday.
The Conservative prime minister’s hardline speech conflated elements of the UK’s large pro-Palestinian movement with “extremism”, saying that “Islamist extremists” and the far right were “two sides of the same extremist coin”, before also threatening foreign students with deportation and promising to increase support for a much-criticised anti-extremism programme.
Sunak’s speech has been denounced by left-wing politicians and commentators, with Labour parliamentarian Nadia Whittome calling it a “truly chilling speech”.
“The mask has really dropped,” said Green Member of Parliament Carolina Lucas. “If there were any doubt who the real extremists are, it is [Sunak’s] government – threatening to take visas off protesters and stirring up anti-Muslim hate.”
In absolute desperation facing electoral meltdown, Sunak tries the usual Tory manoeuvre of “discovering”a scary enemy within, to divert attention from the collapse of political support for his party & the economic mess we’re in, whilst trying to sound Churchillian. Farcical.
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) March 1, 2024
Palestinians injured in Gaza City attack receive treatment in Jabalia
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has released footage of its medics in Jabalia attending to Palestinians wounded in Thursday morning’s attack.
They are among at least 760 wounded in the attack on top of at least 115 killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest tally.
A video shows the PRCS medical point in Jabaliya, north of the #Gaza Strip, receiving several injuries yesterday as they were targeted by occupation forces while attempting to obtain humanitarian aid near the Nablusi roundabout on Al-Rashid St.
📷Filmed by PRCS volunteer: Ali Abu… pic.twitter.com/nk8MpEGo1V— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 1, 2024
Biden still unwilling to budge on Israel policy, despite global condemnation of Gaza City attack
US officials told NBC News that the American president “remains unwilling to make any major shifts in his policy toward Israel, including placing conditions on military aid to Israel”.
The officials also expressed doubt that Israel would “provide a full accounting” of the attack on Palestinians waiting for food aid in Gaza City on Thursday, with one official saying that there is “no question” the deaths would negatively affect continuing negotiations for a ceasefire.
Yet, despite the continuing conflict worsening Biden’s domestic position as the 2024 presidential election gets closer, he does not appear to be willing to substantially change tack and heavily increase pressure on Israel to stop.