Israel’s war on Gaza updates: World condemns Al Jazeera journalist’s arrest
UN “stands against” harassment of journalists, rights groups demand release of Ismail al-Ghoul after beating, detention.
- Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody, after being Israeli forces severely beat and detained him during raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital earlier today.
- UN says it “stands against” harassment of journalists after al-Ghoul’s arrest, as rights group Committee to Protect Journalists calls indicent “deliberate attempt” to cover up Israeli assault on al-Shifa Hospital.
- Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody, after being Israeli forces severely beat and detained him during raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital earlier today.
- UN says it “stands against” harassment of journalists after al-Ghoul’s arrest, as rights group Committee to Protect Journalists calls indicent “deliberate attempt” to cover up Israeli assault on al-Shifa Hospital.
- UN chief Antonio Guterres says a new report warning that famine is now imminent in northern Gaza is an “appalling indictment” of the situation on the ground.
- At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed and 73,792 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attack stands at 1,139 with dozens taken captive.
Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul just one of many journalists in Gaza targeted by Israel
After speaking to him, I can say [Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul] is doing fine.
He had been blindfolded and handcuffed for 12 hours [by Israeli forces] and was taken away for interrogation.
Journalists are one of the main focuses of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Ismail has been reporting on Israeli attacks in Gaza since day one of the fighting.
He has been able to continue reporting despite all the ongoing efforts by the Israeli military to silence the narrative of Palestinians around the world.
Aid trucks still backed up behind Gaza border as children die of starvation
James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, the UN’s agency for children, explains in this clip how a large number of trucks carrying food, water and other life-saving supplies are stuck behind the Gaza border and unable to get in, even as infants are dying of starvation.
“Outrages. How many lifesaving supplies are so desperately close to those who need them?” he says.
“These are the supplies that so urgently need to get across to the civilians of Gaza and the most efficient way, the only way we are going to save the lives of the numbers of children who are so desperately in need, is by these roads.”
A handful of aid trucks began reaching northern Gaza over the weekend without coming under Israeli attack in what is the first time that humanitarian convoys have reached the area without incident since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Famine is so terrifyingly close to #Gaza. Infuriatingly, lifesaving supplies are even closer. pic.twitter.com/wk8KoIsYi8
— James Elder (@1james_elder) March 18, 2024
WHO reports aid deliveries to Gaza ‘often blocked or refused’
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report about famine in Gaza, which we reported on earlier, shows in detail what the organisation and other aid groups have been witnessing and reporting for months.
The “WHO and partners have been carrying out high-risk missions to deliver medicines, fuel and food for health workers and their patients, but our requests to deliver supplies are often blocked or refused”, it says in a statement.
“Damaged roads and continuous fighting, including in and close to hospitals, mean deliveries are few and slow,” the statement continues.
“When our missions reach hospitals, we meet exhausted and hungry health workers who ask us for food and water.”
Famine in Gaza is imminent, with immediate and long-term health consequences
The latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership released today warns that the situation in #Gaza is catastrophic, with northern Gaza facing imminent famine… pic.twitter.com/ZTQL4aIilj
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 18, 2024
Famine expected in Gaza between now and May: What to know
Northern Gaza could be hit by famine any time between mid-March and May and more than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is facing “catastrophic hunger”, a UN-backed report published on Monday has warned.
Some 300,000 people remain trapped in northern Gaza, where people have resorted to eating animal feed in desperation and at least 27 children have died of malnutrition in recent weeks as Israel has blocked the delivery of aid supplies, including food. The first aid trucks in months entered northern Gaza on Sunday.
More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and vast swathes of the besieged enclave destroyed in more than five months of relentless Israeli bombardment.
You can read an explainer on the hunger crises in Gaza here.
At least six killed in Rafah
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting an Israeli attack on several homes and an apartment in the southern Gaza city.
At least six people have been killed and others injured in the strikes.
We will bring you more on this attack as soon as information comes in.
UNSC ‘strongly condemns’ Houthi attacks in Red Sea
The UN Security Council has “condemned in the strongest terms” attacks by the Houthi group in Yemen on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, including the March 6 attack on the True Confidence that killed two Filipino members and one Vietnamese member of the ship’s crew.
Council members demanded that Houthi attacks against commercial vessels cease, urged caution and restraint to avoid further escalation and “reaffirmed that the exercise of navigational rights and freedoms by merchant and commercial vessels of all States transiting the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, in accordance with international law, must be respected”.
“The Council members recalled the importance of enhancing international and regional cooperation to counter threats to peace and security in the region and called for a de-escalation in the Red Sea to preserve the peace process in Yemen.”
Child killed in central Gaza: Red Crescent
The Palestine Red Crescent says they have recovered the body of a dead child in the al-Sawarha area following an Israeli attack on a home.
A search for survivors is ongoing, the group said.
🚑The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams are transporting the body of a child who was killed As a result of the Israeli occupation targeting a house in the Al-Sawarha area in the central #Gaza Strip, and the search for missing persons under the rubble is still ongoing.… pic.twitter.com/3QKV8JM1Es
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 18, 2024
Palestinian recognition would ‘ultimately reward terrorism’, Gantz tells Canada
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has spoken on the phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the New Democratic Party in Canada pushed legislation in the country’s parliament to “officially recognise” the State of Palestine.
“I expressed that unilateral recognition, particularly following the 7th of October, is counterproductive to the mutual goal of long-term regional security and stability, and would ultimately reward terrorism,” Gantz said.
“I reiterated to the PM that for the sake of the region, any unilateral actions should be avoided,” Gantz said, also thanking the Israel ally for “his personal commitment to Israel’s security”.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday that Canada will continue to back a two-state solution but will not change its overall foreign policy based on the legislation.
I spoke today with Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau.
I conveyed my appreciation to The Prime Minister for his personal commitment to Israel’s security.
In light of the upcoming vote in Canada’s parliament calling for the unilateral recognision of a Palestinian State, I…
— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 18, 2024
Footage shows aftermath of Israeli attacks on civilian homes in Gaza City
This disturbing footage, originally posted by photographer Omar El Qattaa and verified by Al Jazeera, shows the immediate aftermath of the latest Israeli strike on northern Gaza.
اللحظات الأولى التي تلت استهداف قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي لمنازل مواطنين بشارع الجلاء بمدينة غزة#فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/JrxzISwcRL
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) March 18, 2024
Translation: The first moments after the Israeli occupation forces targeted civilian homes on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City.
Israel claims 222 aid trucks entered Gaza today
Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) office claims 222 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and allowed into the Gaza Strip today.
It says two-thirds of the trucks carried food, with the rest carrying medical supplies, water and shelter equipment.
The UN and Israel’s allies in the West, along with governments around the world, continue to condemn Israeli restrictions on aid that have led to famine in the besieged enclave.
Humanitarian aid continues to flow into Gaza:
🚛222 Humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip today (March 18).66% of the trucks carried food, the rest carried medical supplies, water and shelter equipment. pic.twitter.com/XVBOIPm3ms
— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 18, 2024
‘History will never forget this’
Tamer Qarmout, reacting to the new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, says famine was imminent in Gaza and is “more embarrassment for Israel on the international stage”.
We’ve been reporting on a UN-backed report by the IPC, which found that hunger has reached “catastrophic” levels for 1.1 million people in Gaza with the most dire conditions in the Strip’s north.
“History will never forget this. We take records of all these actions for humanity to know and not forget or forgive,” Qarmout, a professor of Public Policy at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.
“Israel is acting like a pariah state. It’s above international law and it can afford doing this because there is no punishment. It’s not accountable to anyone, thanks to the United States.”
Knesset member: Marwan Barghouti’s life in danger in Israeli prison
Palestinian-Israeli politician and Israeli parliament member Ahmad Tibi says the life of prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti is in danger inside the country’s prison system.
He told a press briefing that Barghouti has been beaten at least twice this month in solitary confinement, once on March 6 and again on March 12. He also said several Palestinian prisoners have died behind bars recently, with families and judges saying their bodies bore marks of torture.
“If Marwan Barghouti and all the prisoners are harmed, the responsibility will be on the Israeli government,” Tibi said.
“The responsibility will be on the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prison manager is also responsible for everything that happens to him, as is [Israeli Prison Service] Shabak.”
Marwan Barghouti's life is in danger inside prison due to assaults on him and other detainees. I hold Netanyahu responsible for any harm to him, his life, and the lives of the prisoners. pic.twitter.com/PlsOIGbiUq
— Ahmad Tibi (@Ahmad_tibi) March 18, 2024
Israeli settlers attack villages south of Nablus with military protection
Israeli settlers accompanied by armed forces attacked Palestinian land south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank after dark today.
The footage below, verified by Al Jazeera, shows the forces arriving at Burin village. The Wafa news agency says the Madama village in the area was also attacked.
The Palestinian news service cited unnamed local sources as saying that settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar in the occupied West Bank pelted a Palestinian home located between the two villages with stones, shattering its windows, and also damaged several vehicles.
It also said Israeli armed forces made no moves to stop the attacks, and fired live ammunition and tear gas in the direction of Palestinians in the area, but no injuries were reported.
مستوطنون يهاجمون منازل على أطراف قرية بورين جنوب نابلس#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/pDlLelGf8f
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) March 18, 2024
Houthi attacks must ease for salvage of two vessels: UN shipping agency
Efforts to limit environmental damage from a cargo vessel that sank after a Houthi missile strike and another vessel abandoned in a separate attack are on hold until attacks on ships let up, the UN’s maritime shipping regulator says.
The UK-owned ship Rubymar last month became the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea area in November. The Greek-owned True Confidence was then abandoned this month after being set ablaze in an attack that killed a few of its crew members near Yemen’s port city of Aden.
“We’re limited in what we can do in an area that is not safe and secure,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, said at a media briefing in London.
The Houthis say their campaign against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is a show of solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Israeli military says 200 arrested at al-Shifa Hospital
Here are the main points made by Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari during an evening press briefing about today’s operations at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
- We arrested 200 people during the operation in the hospital complex and killed 20 Palestinian fighters.
- A soldier from our forces was killed during the operation in the area.
- We found weapons and money inside the al-Shifa complex.
- We are conducting an investigation of those arrested in the operation, and we call on the Palestinian militants to surrender.
International community ‘should hang head in shame’ for allowing Gaza famine
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths says “famine is imminent in Gaza”.
He said more than one million Palestinians are at risk because they have been cut off from aid, markets have collapsed and fields have been bombed.
“The international community should hang its head in shame for failing to stop this,” he said on X.
“I renew my call to the Israeli authorities to allow complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods.”
Famine is imminent in Gaza.
The international community should hang its head in shame for failing to stop it. pic.twitter.com/UjjaS094B3
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) March 18, 2024
Israel’s Smotrich says one response to EU sanctions: ‘Entrenching’ settlements
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has promised to protect Israel’s illegal settlements after EU foreign ministers approved sanctions against violent settlers in the occupied West Bank.
“There is one holistic, Zionist response to this [EU] declaration – strengthening and entrenching settlements in all parts of the land of Israel,” Smotrich was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.
The minister – a backer of settlement expansions in occupied Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law – said the “false BDS campaign against Israel is working”, referring to the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Smotrich described it as “a campaign which is designed in its entirety to besmirch the state of Israel”.
Ismail al-Ghoul gives interview on his detention by Israeli forces
Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul has spoken to the channel about his experience in Israeli custody.
He told Al Jazeera after his release that Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa Hospital at dawn during intense fighting. They started by destroying media equipment and arresting journalists gathered in a room used by media teams, he said.
The journalists were stripped of their clothes, he continued, and were arrested and placed in a room inside the medical compound. They were forced to lie on their stomachs as they were blindfolded and their hands tied, he said.
Israeli soldiers would open fire to scare them if there was any movement, al-Ghoul said. After about 12 hours, they were taken for interrogation. After waiting in line for investigation, an elderly man was released from inside the hospital and he needed help to leave the compound, the journalist said, adding that he volunteered to help the man and was able to accompany him until they both left the compound.
Al-Ghoul later heard that some of his colleagues were released but said he does not have enough information about the whereabouts of the rest of his team to confirm any details.
Israel to send interagency team to Washington to discuss Rafah: White House
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“We’ve arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective,” Sullivan said.
Netanyahu has pushed for a ground operation into Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been sheltering, despite international calls saying such a move would be “catastrophic”.
US claims Israel killed ‘Hamas number 3’ Marwan Issa
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has become the first government official outside Israel to confirm reports that Israel has killed Marwan Issa, the third-highest-ranking military commander of Hamas.
“The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network, and justice will come for them too. We are helping to ensure that,” Sullivan said in a news briefing.
The Israeli military first reported targeting a gathering of Hamas commanders last week and said Issa was likely killed. Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said on Sunday that Hamas is trying to hide the fate of Issa, who is the deputy commander of the group’s military wing.
Al Jazeera journalist released from Israeli detention
Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was beaten and detained by Israeli troops during their raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, has been freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody.
UN says looming Rafah incursion would break Gaza aid distribution
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem, UN official Jamie McGoldrick said the organisation’s humanitarian body could not plan its Gaza aid operation for more than two or three days ahead because of conditions he described as uncertain and unstable.
“It would be a really difficult scenario for us to envisage the possibility of hundreds of thousands of people being forced from Rafah because of the incursion,” he said.
“We are not in a position to contingency plan that. We’re not in a position to pre-position shelter, material, food, medical supplies and especially water … It will be a real problem for us.”
Defying international calls to halt its military operation, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to push into Rafah on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where more than half of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been sheltering in makeshift tents to escape the Israeli assault farther north.
“If there was to be an incursion, that [aid] system we have, which is already precarious and intermittent, would then be broken,” said McGoldrick.
Houthi-run channel reports 10 new US-UK raids on Yemen
The Al Masirah television channel, run by the Houthis in Yemen, has reported 10 new air attacks by the US and UK militaries.
It said the attacks targeted the al-Jabbana and al-Faza areas in the port city of Hodeidah, which has been a main target of the US-UK air strikes that have hit multiple governorates across Yemen since the Houthis started targeting cargo and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November in support of the Palestinians.
Israel says UNRWA chief visit ‘not submitted by necessary processes’
The Israeli government has blamed the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, after he was denied entry into the Gaza Strip amid a worsening humanitarian crisis caused by Israel.
Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is tasked with coordinating aid, said Lazzarini’s request “was not submitted by the necessary coordination processes and channels”.
“This was promptly communicated to the relevant UN bodies. This is another attempt by UNRWA to blame Israel for their own mistakes.”
Israel continues to be heavily criticised internationally, including by the UN and its own allies, for restricting aid and imposing starvation on Palestinians.
The @UNRWA commissioner’s request to coordinate his entry into the Gaza Strip was not submitted by the necessary coordination processes and channels. This was promptly communicated to the relevant UN bodies.
This is another attempt by UNRWA to blame Israel for their own mistakes. https://t.co/E1WXTpmzje— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 18, 2024