Israel-Palestine live: US vice president calls for ‘immediate’ six-week ceasefire

The United Nations humanitarian office (Ocha) said on Tuesday the Israeli military had stalled a medical evacuation convoy in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, detaining a paramedic and forcing others to remove their clothes.

The incident occurred on Sunday during the evacuation of 24 patients from the city's Al-Amal Hospital, it said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment, saying it was checking the details of the incident described by Ocha.

The hospital complex has been under Israeli siege and shelling for weeks.

"Despite prior coordination for all staff members and vehicles with the Israeli side, the Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led (World Health Organization) convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for Ocha, told reporters in Geneva.

"The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes," Laerke said. "Three Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance."

He said one paramedic was later released and appealed for the release of the two others and all other detained health personnel.

Reporting by Reuters 

Palestinian armed groups say their fighters are engaged in heavy combat against Israeli soldiers in Gaza City's southern districts. 

Al-Quds Brigades, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the Mujahideen Brigades all said in brief statements they were fighting Israeli ground troops in the Zeitoun district.

The Israeli army said late last week it was operating again south of Gaza City, an area it previously said it had cleared. 

Heavy clashes have been reported there since. 

Local sources told Middle East Eye intense fighting took place in Zeitoun overnight with Israeli fighter jets launching air strikes in combat areas. 

Initial Israeli reports say several soldiers have been evacuated from Gaza this morning to hospitals across the country. 

However, there has been no immediate confirmation of casualties. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Tuesday that 84 out of the 183 schools it runs have been directly hit or damaged across the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war in October.  

The agency renewed its call for a ceasefire, saying no place is safe in Gaza, including UN schools-turned-shelters. 

Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, which constitutes a "situation of genocide", the UN’s leading expert on the right to food Michael Fakhri has said. 

Speaking to the Guardian, Fakhri accused Israel of intentionally carrying out a policy of denying food to civilians, which he said was a war crime. 

“There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza other than to deny people access to food,” said Fakhri. 

He added that "intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime" and accused Israel of announcing its intention to "destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian". 

"In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide. This means the State of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable - not just individuals or this government, or that person," said the law professor at the University of Oregon.  

“The speed of malnourishment of young children is also astounding. The bombing and people being killed directly is brutal, but this starvation - and the wasting and stunting of children - is torturous and vile. It will have a longterm impact on the population physically, cognitively and morally … All things indicate that this has been intentional,” he added. 

There is no breakthrough to announce a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has said. 

According to Reuters, Majed Al-Ansari told a press conference that Doha is "pushing hard" in the talks but there is still no agreement between Hamas and Israel on any of the main issues relating to the ceasefire. 

Medical teams at the Nasser Medical Complex are unable to provide health care to patients after an Israeli raid put the Khan Younis hospital out of service, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

It added that ventilators have stopped working due to power outages while the sewage network has broken down and water had been cut off.

There's an urgent need to transfer 120 patients still trapped inside to other hospitals, the ministry said in a statement. 

"We call on international institutions to take urgent action to provide the emergency and urgent needs of Nasser Medical Complex." 

Israeli soldiers invading Gaza voted in Israel's municipal elections while operating inside the Strip, the military said. 

According to the Times of Israel, some 30,000 active duty and reserve service members in the Gaza Strip and on military bases have voted in the country's local elections as of 10am local time. 

The Israeli military continued to kill Palestinians in overnight air strikes, including in areas it previously told civilians were safe, like the city of Rafah. 

A Hamas official told Reuters that US President Joe Biden's comments on a possible ceasefire in Gaza as early as Monday were premature and did not match the situation on the ground.

The unnamed official added that there were still "big gaps that need to be bridged" in the indirect discussions. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 96 Palestinians and wounded 172 more over the past 24 hours in 11 "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the Palestinian death toll in nearly five months to more than 29,878, with over 70,215 wounded and 7,000 missing, who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. 

More than 70 percent of the victims are women and children, according to health officials.

A Hamas official accused the Biden administration of leaking a ceasefire proposal to influence Palestinian public opinion, saying the draft document doesn't meet the group's demands.

Speaking to Al Arabi TV, Osama Hamdan added that the leaked draft is being promoted for "propaganda" purposes. 

"The Paris Summit draft is an American proposal and its goal is to give [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu more time to prepare for a new attack," Hamdan said. 

He also accused Israel of continuing to "evade its obligations". 

The leaked proposal, reported by Al Jazeera and Reuters, includes a temporary pause in fighting, a partial prisoner swap, a gradual and restricted return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, the entry of 500 aid trucks, and the repair of hospitals and bakeries destroyed by Israel. 

Hamdan said Hamas still insists on permanently ending the Israeli aggression, lifting the Israeli siege and launching a Gaza reconstruction project without Israeli restrictions before a prisoner swap.

Hezbollah said Tuesday morning it fired a salvo of rockets at an Israeli air traffic control base in Mount Meron in northern Israel. 

Local media reported explosions were heard in the area with some rockets landing in Israel and other intercepted by air defence systems. 

There were not immediate reports of casualties. 

US President Joe Biden said Israel risked losing international support due to the high number of Palestinians killed by its troops in Gaza, which is now nearing 30,000. 

In an appearance on NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers, Biden also said Israel agreed to temporarily halt its ongoing assault during Ramadan if a deal is reached to release captives held in Gaza. 

There was no immediate comment from Israel. 

Ramadan, a month of spiritual reflection in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, is set to start on 10 March. 

Israeli authorities often increase restrictions on Muslim Palestinians attempting to access the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan, which leads to an escalation in tensions. 

Biden added that if a temporary ceasefire is agreed, then "we're going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic and...[have a] process to get to a two-state solution".

A new ceasefire proposal includes a gradual return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, according to media reports. 

Hamas, which has not been party to the formulation of the proposal, previously demanded all Palestinians displaced by Israel's ongoing assault be allowed to return to their homes. 

The new proposal was the result of a series of meetings between US, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials. 

It builds on previous proposals discussed earlier this month. Hamas has yet to comment on it. 

According to Al Jazeera and Reuters, the new proposal involves an initial 40-day pause in fighting along with a limited prisoner swap.

In the exchange, Hamas would release around 40 Israelis held in Gaza - women, children under 19, elderly over 50 and the sick - and Israel would free 400 Palestinian prisoners at a ratio of 10 to one. Hamas previously demanded the release of over 1,500 prisoners. 

During the ceasefire, 500 aid trucks would enter Gaza each day, hospitals and bakeries destroyed by Israel would be repaired and thousands of tents and caravans would be delivered to house the displaced.

In this phase, Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza would be allowed to return to their homes in the north, except for "young men who are of recruitment age".

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

It's just after 8:00am (6:00 GMT) in Palestine and Israel. Here are the latest developments on day 144 of Israel's war on Gaza: 

• Israeli jets bombed heavily south of Gaza City overnight, with initial reports of casualties, according to local media. Clashes were also reported in different locations across the city. 

• Also in Gaza City, a limited amount of aid trucks carrying wheat flour entered late on Monday, after days of Israeli siege that led to several deaths of malnutrition, according to Palestinian media. 

• In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in a late-night raid near the city of Tubas. The three young men were members of the local Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed branch. 

• US President Joe Biden said he hoped a ceasefire agreement would be reached by Monday, which would include an exchange of prisoners. 

• In Yemen, the US military said on Monday it destroyed three unmanned surface vessels and two anti-ship cruise missiles in Houthi-controlled areas.