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Calls to allow more aid into Gaza have grown as health officials report that a total of 20 people have so far died of malnutrition and dehydration.
Here’s how things are going on Thursday March 7, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- On Thursday, at least five people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a mosque in Jabalia al-Balad, northern Gaza.
- A 15-year-old boy and a 72-year-old man died in northern Gaza from malnutrition and dehydration, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
- Up to 300,000 Palestinians are estimated to have remained in northern Gaza after Israel ordered the evacuation of the entire region, including Gaza City, in October. Many are reduced to eating animal fodder to survive.
- According to the United Nations, one in six children under the age of two in the north suffer from acute malnutrition.
- Calls to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip have grown as health officials report that a total of 20 people have now died of malnutrition and dehydration.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Israel’s war on Gaza a “tragedy for humanity and a shame for civilization” and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire.
- Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said on Wednesday that the bloc would examine whether Israel was complying with human rights obligations stipulated in their trade deal.
- A US State Department spokesperson said the obstacles to a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas were “not insurmountable” and that a deal could still be reached before Ramadan.
- A court in the Canadian province of Quebec temporarily banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations within 50 meters of a synagogue and four other buildings of the Jewish community in the city of Montreal, according to media reports on Wednesday.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces continued their raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, arresting at least nine people in the towns of Tubas and Tammun.
- An Israeli settlement planning authority has requested permits for 3,500 new illegal housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law.
