The Palestinian Health Ministry says famine in northern Gaza has reached dangerous levels, with 25 people dying from starvation and dehydration.
Here’s how things are going on Sunday March 10, 2024:
Accelerated attacks and humanitarian crisis
- An infant and a young woman died of malnutrition in northern Gaza, bringing the number of known starvation deaths to 25.
- Residents of Rafah are desperately queuing for 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 Tel Aviv Tribune that Israel had destroyed three out of four water wells in the north.
- The United States says a navy logistics ship headed to the eastern Mediterranean to establish a temporary dock in Gaza to deliver aid.
- At least 13 Palestinians seeking refuge in Khan Younis were killed by Israeli bombing of their tents. An airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp killed 13 other 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 Wafa news agency reports. An aid worker employed by a US charity was also killed in the area. The death toll now stands at 30,960, with 72,524 injured.
- Sweden will resume its funding to UNRWA, with an initial disbursement of $20 million, following similar steps taken by Canada this week.
- The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) said its last office in Gaza was destroyed in an Israeli attack.
Regional tensions
- Hezbollah claims to have struck an Israeli army base on Saturday with a Burkan rocket. The Israeli military denied 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 others in a village in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Lebanese security sources said Saturday.
- US President Joe Biden, in an interview with MSNBC, made contradictory statements, saying he would continue to support Israel while warning that there are “red lines” that Tel Aviv should not cross in the war against Gaza.
- The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday it had shot down 15 drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea region. The Houthis target ships linked to Israel as well as American and British ships demanding an end to the Israeli war on Gaza.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- A group of settlers set up a mobile home on Palestinian land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Saturday, Wafa reports. A local official told the Palestinian News Agency that Israeli forces have prevented residents from accessing their land in northern Sinjil since October 7.
- In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, Israeli soldiers seized a tractor and chased Palestinian farmers and shepherds from their pastures as they tried to reclaim occupied land, according to Wafa.
- Settlers destroyed tombstones in the Bab ar-Rahma cemetery, adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Wafa reported. At least 10 tombs were damaged during the assault.