Live: Israel kills more than 430 Palestinians on Tuesday

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the Israeli military will stay at five strategic points in southern Lebanon “indefinitely,” regardless of negotiations over 13 disputed points on the border, according to The Times of Israel.

During an assessment yesterday with top military officials, Katz said that the Israeli military will remain at the "five points that control the buffer zone in Lebanon, indefinitely, for the sake of protecting the residents of the north, and this is without any connection to future negotiations on points of dispute on the border,” his office said.

On Tuesday, the US  announced it is mediating talks between Lebanon and Israel to resolve outstanding disputes, including the release of Lebanese detainees and land border disputes. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that it has not been able to transport any food supplies into Gaza since 2 March due to Israel's closure of all border crossing points for both humanitarian and commercial supplies.

"Commercial food prices have begun to surge since the 2 March closure of border crossings," the WFP statement said.

"In some cases, prices on staple items such as flour, sugar, and vegetables have increased over 200 percent. Traders have begun withholding goods due to uncertainty over when new supplies would arrive."

The UN agency also said it’s increasingly concerned about food shortages in the occupied West Bank where military activity, displacement, and movement restrictions are disrupting markets and limiting access to food.

The former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate has voiced his support for the "power struggle" in Syria, adding that the "chaos" benefits Israel. 

"The chaos in Syria is beneficial. Let them fight each other. But Israel should remain silent on this matter and not make any public statements. It should act calmly," Tamir Hayman said in an interview with the Israeli Army Radio.

Hayman, who now serves as the director of the Institute for National Security Studies, welcomed the conflict between the different factions in Syria, but added that Israel must stay quiet.

"We wish victory to all forces, but we must do one thing, do this silently, and not talk about it."

He said while in the short term there appears to be power struggle in Syria, the new government is trying to extend its control.  

Read more: Former head of Israeli military intelligence welcomes 'chaos' in Syria

Federal agents from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted late-night searches of two Columbia University dormitories on Thursday evening, according to Haaretz.

No arrests were made, and nothing was seized, according to an email from interim president of the university, Katrina Armstrong.

The searches were authorised by a federal magistrate judge, allowing DHS agents to access private residencies on campus.

This incident follows the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia University graduate, who was detained for organising a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

Families of Israeli captives warned on Thursday that they would reveal what they called government 'deception of the public' unless urgent measures are taken to free all surviving captives as they penned an open letter to US President Donald Trump.

"We heard the prime ministers, the military, and the security establishment behind closed doors and saw how they told the public a completely different story," the families said, according to Haaretz.

They warned that unless the Israeli government acts immediately, they will reveal "everything that was said to us – all the broken promises, all the fateful decisions made based on political interests rather than human lives. We will not allow irresponsible leaders to continue lying and covering up their failures."

Addressing Trump directly, the families said: "You are the only person who can now intervene and put an end to this nightmare."

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, has demanded that Israel withdraw troops from the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, in line with its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

“Reports indicate new proposals are being presented aimed at circumventing the Gaza agreement,” Qassem told the AFP news agency.

“Meetings are continuing with mediators in Doha. We adhere to what was agreed upon and to entering into the second phase,” he added.

But Qassem insisted that Israel must also fulfil its obligations of “withdrawing from the entire Gaza Strip”, according to AFP, and “begin the withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor” for any second phase deal to end the war.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli soldiers, have stormed the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris, near Salfit, according to Palestinian activist Ihab Hassan.

Israeli soldiers sealed the village off in the early hours of this morning “under the pretext of [the settlers] visiting religious sites”, Hassan wrote in a post on X.

We previously reported that Israeli settlers have also stormed two other villages in the south of Nablus, setting fire to Palestinian homes and vehicles.

Tonight, at 4 AM Palestine time, hundreds of Israeli settlers, escorted by the IDF, stormed the village of Kifl Haris in Salfit, sealing it off under the pretext of visiting religious sites. pic.twitter.com/Ch43TmJbym

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 14, 2025

Hundreds of Jewish demonstrators overran New York's Trump Tower on Thursday in support of Palestinians as well as detained Palestinian student campaigner Mahmoud Khalil.

Wearing matching red T-shirts emblazoned with "Jews say stop arming Israel," the group protested for over an hour inside the Manhattan skyscraper, where President Donald Trump's family business is headquartered and he has a personal residence.

Police said they arrested 98 people, marching under the banner of the American-Jewish group called Jewish Voice for Peace, for crimes including trespassing.

JVP said those arrested included “Jewish elders, descendants of Holocaust survivors, and students” and that police dragged the demonstrators out of the sit-in by their arms and legs."

"Jews say: Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine!" the group said.

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates on Israel's war on Gaza:

• Israeli military stormed the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, arrested five Palestinian brothers, according to The Palestinian Information Centre.

• The US and Israel contacted officials from Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to “discuss using their territories as potential destinations for resettling Palestinians uprooted from the Gaza Strip”, Associated Press news agency is reporting.

• Israeli settlers set fire to several Palestinian homes and vehicles in the village of Duma and the town of Khirbet al-Manajim in the occupied West Bank.

• Israeli forces stormed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem as Palestinians gathered for dawn prayers, according to Al Jazeera.

• The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians in Gaza every day since the ceasefire came into effect, killing at least 150 Palestinians and wounding 605 others between 19  January and 10 March.

• The Student Workers of Columbia union says its president Grant Miner is among the nine students expelled by the university "the day before we start bargaining” with the university’s administration over staff contracts. Columbia University Apartheid Divest said that the university has suspended, expelled or revoked degrees from a total of 22 students.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

• Israeli drones killed two children in Gaza, one in Shujaeya neighbourhood in Gaza City and the other in Beit Hanoun, northern the Strip,
• Hamas has dismissed reports about extending the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, as part of a temporary deal to release more Israeli captives, as the group spokesperson Hazem Qassem said they are committed to the existing ceasefire and will enter its second stage,
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has authenticated 54 “attacks on health centres” in the occupied West Bank since January, according to the spokesperson of the United Nation Secretary General Stephane Dujarric. Around 20 facilities are now currently out of service,
• An official at Gaza’s health ministry said the enclave is in “urgent” need of at least 10 oxygen generators, after Israeli attacks had destroyed the hospitals’ medical equipment in the Strip,
• The National Campaign to retrieve Martyrs’ Bodies, a Palestinian advocacy group, said that Israel is retaining the corpses of 676 Palestinians in freezers and burial sites known as “cemeteries of numbers,”
• Israel said it targeted on Hezbollah facilities used for "manufacturing and storing strategic weapons" in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon,
• A group of US Jewish activists have protested at Trump Tower in New York City, calling for the immediate release of Palestinian Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for organising a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

A second Palestinian child has been killed when an Israeli drone attacked a tent in Beit Hanoun, located in northern Gaza, according to Wafa news agency and al-Jazeera.

The child’s mother was injured.

Earlier, it was reported that an Israeli drone killed a three-year-old child in Shujaeya district in Gaza city.

Hamas has dismissed reports about extending the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, as part of a temporary deal to release more Israeli captives.

“We are committed to what has already been agreed upon and moving to the second phase of the deal,” Hazem Qassem, the group’s spokesman said on Thursday.

His remarks come as Israeli media reports that the US aims to extend the truce’s first stage.

Israel and Hamas are currently resuming a new round of ceasefire talks in Doha.

Hazem says Hamas asks for the war to be brought to an end with a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.

“We don’t want to return to war again, but if the [Israeli] occupation renews its aggression, we would have no choice but to defend our people,” he added.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has authenticated 54 “attacks on health centres” in the occupied West Bank since January, according to the spokesperson of the United Nation Secretary General Stephane Dujarric.

She said the attacks resulted in four deaths and nine injuries since January, and 20 health facilities are now completely out of service due to the Israeli attacks.

Israel has intensified its military operations in the occupied West Bank this year, after the Gaza ceasefire came into effect mid January.

Israel is retaining the corpses of 676 Palestinians in freezers and burial sites known as “cemeteries of numbers”, says the National Campaign to retrieve Martyrs’ Bodies, a Palestinian advocacy group.

Some of the bodies belong to around 60 children and nine women.

The organisation says the number of bodies has increased this week following the Israeli killing of three Palestinians in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

Israel said it targeted on Thursday Hezbollah facilities used for "manufacturing and storing strategic weapons" in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described Israel’s military presence in parts of south Lebanon as an “assault on our sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Nawaf said that the government’s top priorities are to “reclaim war and peace decisions” and to hold weapons.

He said his statements during an Iftar (breaking fast) meal, according to the Lebanese news agency NNA.