Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal
Live Updates
A group of Palestinians responsible for aid supplies and deliveries was hit by Israeli air strikes on Tuesday in northern Gaza City, resulting in the death of at least 23 people.
These are grassroots "popular committees" established to organise the cooperation of different tribes in providing humanitarian aid in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
They emerged in response to widespread disorder triggered by severe food shortages in recent weeks and are dedicated to guaranteeing the secure delivery of urgently required aid to UN centres.
The Trudeau administration will halt future arms exports to Israel, even though the motion approved by the House of Commons on Monday, which called for this measure, is not legally binding, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said.
"It is a real thing," Joly commented to the Toronto Star, following a vote where the majority of Liberal MPs and cabinet members supported a modified NDP resolution, which, according to some pro-Israel groups, challenges Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas.
The resolution in question aimed to intensify Canada's position on the Middle East conflict.
It originally called for an immediate ceasefire, with an added demand for Hamas to disarm; it advocated for the recognition of the State of Palestine, later adjusted to support for the "establishment of the State of Palestine" within the framework of a two-state solution negotiation; and it proposed a suspension of weapons sales, which was revised to either cessation or a complete ban, the Toronto Star reported.
Following intense negotiations that extended up to the last minute on Monday, causing a delay in voting by nearly two hours, the motion underwent revisions to address concerns from the Liberal government.
These changes ensured it did not stray from Canada's longstanding endorsement of a "two-state solution" as the resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East.
A charity based in the United States reported that nearly 200 tons of food aid were delivered to people facing starvation in northern Gaza on Tuesday, one week after it was shipped from the Cypriot port of Larnaca via a sea route.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates and the Spanish charity Open Arms, dispatched the food aid covering a 322 km journey by sea from Larnaca to a temporary jetty near Gaza. The shipment reached Gaza on Friday.
A report supported by the UN on Monday indicated that the northern Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine, described as "imminent", with around 300,000 individuals cut off due to the war.
Throughout the entire Gaza Strip, the tally of individuals confronting "catastrophic hunger" has surged to 1.1 million, constituting half of the population.
A second vessel is now moored at Larnaca with food onboard, waiting to travel pending weather conditions, WCK and Cypriot government officials said.
"WCK is ready to send tonnes of food weekly to Gaza with support from the international community," WCK said in a statement.
An Israeli air strike, which hit a house in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, resulted in the death of at least 15 people, Palestinian health officials reported on Tuesday.
Medics have indicated that search and rescue efforts are ongoing, as there are victims presumed to be buried beneath the debris of the collapsed three-story building.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that the chief and staff of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) should have access to visit their operational areas, including those in Gaza.
Patel said that the unrestricted mobility of international workers is crucial for humanitarian efforts, and the United States will persist in collaborating with Israel and other relevant parties to advocate for this.
This statement came after Unrwa and Egypt reported that Israel had blocked the agency's head from entering the Gaza Strip on Monday.
US and Israeli officials are expected to convene in Washington early next week to deliberate on Israel's military activities in Rafah, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre announced on Tuesday.
Jean-Pierre mentioned that President Joe Biden requested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dispatch a high-level delegation, including military, intelligence, and humanitarian officials to Washington for detailed discussions in the upcoming days.
She added that while specifics were still under finalisation, the meeting is anticipated to take place early next week. She also mentioned that the White House has called on Israel to enhance its efforts in facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
On Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Italy is against an Israeli ground invasion into Rafah.
"We will reiterate our opposition to military action on the ground by Israel in Rafah that could have even more catastrophic consequences for the civilians crowded in that area," Meloni told lawmakers in the Senate.
She also added that establishing new land routes and a sea corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, was a priority.
Armed and masked men from various factions and clans are providing security for aid convoys in Gaza, Palestinian officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Reuters obtained footage of international aid trucks entering Gaza City overnight, overseen by men wielding sticks and armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
Israel's war on Gaza, and its objective to eliminate Hamas, has made it risky for anyone associated with the group to provide security for aid deliveries into the enclave.
As a result, civil society groups and factions are stepping in, including individuals from Fatah, Hamas's political rival, according to Palestinian officials and Hamas sources.
The identities of the clans and factions helping were not revealed. Sources told Reuters that Hamas helped to rally these groups, and that Israeli attempts to create tribal administrations in Gaza were being resisted.
"Israel's plan to find some clans to collaborate with its pilot projects of finding an alternative to Hamas didn't succeed but it also showed that Palestinian resistance factions are the only ones who can run the show, in one way or another," said an unnamed Palestinian official.
A coalition of aid groups has warned that famine is imminent in Gaza, in what Unrwa - the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees - has described as "man-made starvation".
The UN and other aid agencies have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine due to Israel's prevention of the entry of life-saving aid through the enclave's land crossings.
"This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity. Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will," said Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also said on Monday that Israel was provoking starvation and using starvation as a weapon of war, adding that the humanitarian crisis is "man-made".
Read more: What is famine and why did the UN declare it imminent in Gaza?
Nissim Vaturi, an Israeli lawmaker belonging to the ruling Likud party, has announced he is joining an Israeli group that is planning to create illegal settlements in northern Gaza.
He made the announced on X on Tuesday, accompanied by a picture of a poster which states "only settlement will bring security".
In January, Vaturi doubled down on comments in which he said that Gaza should be "burned now" and that there were no innocent people left in the enclave.
Hamas and Israel have remained silent on the fate of a senior military figure of the Palestinian group after his alleged death was unusually announced by the United States.
During a press conference on Monday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said: “Israel has made significant progress against Hamas… Hamas’ number three, Marwan Issa, was killed in an operation last week.”
While Israel has acknowledged an attempted assassination of Issa, it has stopped short of confirming his death.
Unnamed Israeli officials told Yediot Ahronot following Sullivan’s remarks that they were still "not 100 percent sure" Issa had been killed.
The officials said they believed his death was "very likely" but preferred to be cautious.
Hamas has not officially commented on the reported strike against Issa, which the Israeli military says took place between 10-11 March in the central Gaza Strip's Nuseirat refugee camp.
Read more: Hamas and Israel silent on fate of commander announced dead by US
Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City - the enclave's largest medical complex - has been under sustained Israeli attack and siege for the past two days.
Israeli forces killed 50 Palestinians and arrested 180 during a raid on the facility on Monday.
Middle East Eye has spoken to Palestinian civilians trapped in the vicinity of the beseiged hospital.
Rawia al-Batrikhi, 29, said: "We are besieged from every angle, not knowing whether to go out or stay in. We cannot leave or move. Tanks are here, just outside the room, and there has been constant gunfire and shelling for the past two days. We are lying on the ground, using whatever we can as cover from the bullets.
We cannot lift our heads, we cannot speak loudly, we can hardly breathe. I'm whispering as I speak to you so the [Israeli soldiers] do not notice that we are here. There are about 30 of us in a room in a nursery next to al-Shifa hospital. The gunfire never stops, we need someone to get us out of here as soon as possible."
Muhammed Tareq al-Batrikhi, 34, who is Rawia's husband, also spoke to MEE.
He said: "We have no water or anything. It has been two days without water, and we cannot get any while we are fasting and desperately needing it. We are trying to manage. I used to sell coke cans, and now we are drinking coke instead of water just to stay alive and keep fasting and breaking our fasts. We have no food at all except zaatar.
Yesterday, we broke our fast with bread and thyme, and we had sahour [pre-dawn Ramadan meal] with bread and zaatar. Today, we will also break our fast with bread and zaatar again. But today is the last day we will have bread. When it runs out, we will not be able to make more because there is no water. We do not know how long this situation will continue, we do not know what is coming for us."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a ground invasion of Rafah was the only way to "complete the elimination" of Hamas in the city.
The comments came after Washington urged Israel to rethink invading the southern city, where over 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents and makeshift homes.
Briefing lawmakers on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that he made it "supremely clear" to US President Joe Biden "that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there's no way to do that except by going in on the ground".
Yemen's Houthis have targeted a tanker in the Red Sea and Israel's Eilat region, according to the group's military spokesperson.
Yahya Saree said on Tuesday that the Houthis targeted tanker Mado with naval missiles, and Eilat with winged missiles.
Mado is a Marshall-Islands flagged LPG tanker which was heading to Singapore from Saudi Arabia, according to maritime shipping trackers. The Houthis said it was American.
The de-facto leaders in Yemen have launched attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea since November, as an act of solidarity towards Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment.
Israeli forces killed 50 Palestinians and detained 180 people during a raid on Gaza's al-Shifa hospital on Monday, according to Israel's military.
The military said that those killed were fighters, and those arrested were suspected members of Hamas. It did not provide any evidence of those claims. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of operating inside hospitals - a charge which the Palestinian group has consistently denied.
Al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza, has been completely put out of service following months of Israeli attacks.
Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday: "The continued Israeli aggression against al-Shifa Hospital is an attempt to cover up its failure to achieve its military goals.
"We warn against continuing to target civilians and medical centres protected by international law, and we call on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the United Nations to take action to stop the massacre."
