Israel-Palestine live: Unicef says over 13,000 children killed in Gaza

The US military and coalition forces downed at least 28 drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, the US Central Command said in a statement.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he will push Spain's Congress of Deputies to recognise a Palestinian state before the end of his mandate in 2027.

"We will do it because of moral conviction, because it's a just cause, but also because it is the only way that two states - Israel and Palestine - can live together and co-exist in peace and security," Sanchez said.

The official Lebanese NNA state news agency said on Saturday that Israeli warplanes have hit a home in the southern town of Kafra. 

The news agency added that ambulances and civil defence vehicles rushed to the scene. However, there was no immediate information on whether anyone was killed. 

Earlier, Israeli forces targeted the Lebanese town of Majdal Zoun.
 

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters in Umm al-Fahem city have taken to the streets to call for an end to the war on Gaza. 

The city, southwest of Nazareth, hosts the second-largest community of Palestinians inside Israel. Today's protest is one of the few that have taken place since the start of the war, due to Israel's crackdown on protesters. 
 

Israeli forces dropped leaflets on Gaza on Saturday showing photos of Hamas leader Ismail Hanniyeh eating at a table filled with food, alongside a Palestinian family eating amid destruction in Gaza.

The leaflet reads in Arabic: "Attention! This paper reveals the truth only, nothing else" followed by "blessed Ramadan".

The paper also states: "Call us, and we will meet your needs as long as you benefit us with information.
Ramadan will be very different if you get in touch with us," alongside two phone numbers. 
 

"Soon the days of prayer, holiness, charity and God forbid violence and evil will begin. It is the holy month of Ramadan that is imminent. If you want to celebrate the great occasion in safety and in the arms of your families, call the communications centre we have established and provide any information you have about the kidnapped Israeli hostages," the leaflet reads.  

Video footage shows the aftermath of  an Israeli air strike on the historic Barqouq castle in Khan Younis, which was reduced to rubble.

The castle was constructed during the reign of the Mamluk Burji Sultan Barquq in 1387 CE.
 

An Israeli air strike on Gaza's Nuseirat camp on Saturday killed at least 10 Palestinians. 

A search and rescue operation is underway to retrieve bodies from under a collapsed residential tower belonging to the al-Nuwairi family. 

A survivor told Al Jazeera that there were "children and girls" in the house and that they had been told the area would be safe. 

Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Saturday that 80 percent of homes in the Strip are "uninhabitable" and that the destruction amounts to more than $30bn due to the damage to homes, facilities and other infrastructure. 

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency is at "risk of death" after a string of donors suspended their funding, Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, paused their funding to Unrwa after accusations by Israel that a dozen of the agency's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Hamas attack on southern Israeli towns on 7 October.

"The agency is at risk of death, it is risking dismantlement," Lazzarini told Swiss broadcaster RTS in an interview aired on Saturday.

"What is at stake is the fate of the Palestinians today in Gaza in the short term who are going through an absolutely unprecedented humanitarian crisis."

Earlier on Saturday, Sweden said that it will be resuming aid to Unrwa with an initial sum of $20m after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel.

Middle East Eye on Friday learned that the British government has a plan in place to resume funding to Unrwa. 

The war in Gaza has "ruptured any sense of a shared humanity", the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, has said, calling for an urgent ceasefire.

Spoljaric said that getting a steady, substantial flow of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory was "only part of the solution".

The United Nations says more than 90 percent of the population in Gaza is on the brink of famine

"Alleviating the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza starts with a clear will and measures that safeguard civilian life and human dignity, meaning both sides must conduct their military operations in a way that spares the civilians who are caught in the middle," Spoljaric said. 

"The only way to achieve this is that the parties strictly adhere to international humanitarian law, which means preserving the life, dignity and humanity of all people affected by armed conflict, regardless of which side they are on.  

"It is the line between humanity and barbarity. Preserving civilian life and health is the rule, not the exception."

An Israeli air strike on Saturday destroyed a house in Lebanon’s southern town of Majdal Zoun, according to Lebanon’s NNA state news agency.

The Israeli army struck the house twice, after the first missile failed to explode, according to reports.

Ambulances were sent to the scene, but no victims have yet been confirmed. 

The Israeli army also shelled a house in al-Dhuhaira village, with no reported casualties.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have traded fire across the border since the start of the war on Gaza. Israeli strikes have killed at least 302 people in Lebanon, including 50 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Palestinians in Gaza are desperate to see the end of hostilities there, particularly ahead of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting that starts this year on 10 March.

Yet even as they pray for an easing of their present plight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently shared a vision that would further dispossess Palestinians and further deprive them of their rights. 

Middle East Eye asked survivors in embattled Gaza about what they hoped for after the war. Most had given it little thought, saying that that day still seems far away. In the meantime, they are taking things one day at a time.

"I hope for the best, which is the announcement of an independent Palestinian state, but also expect the worst, which is blockade again, expansion of illegal settlements, and no meaningful steps to ensure the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state," aid worker Tarneem Hamad told MEE.

At the same time, "I expect the global community to rally behind Gaza, helping in rebuilding infrastructure, hospitals, schools, houses; providing humanitarian aid; and facilitating economic recovery," Hamad said.

The US has pushed the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) to prepare to take charge of Gaza, replacing Hamas's de facto control of the Strip, after the war. PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and his government resigned in late February in a move towards kick-starting reforms to the authority, with the ultimate goal of establishing a unified post-war Palestinian state.

The United Nations continues to argue for a two-state solution as the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a concept backed by many western and regional countries. In reality, this option appeared dead long before 7 October, and that is even truer today. The far-right Israeli government has repeatedly rejected such calls.

Less consideration has been given as to what Gaza's population of more than two million people believe their future should look like after the war. 

Palestinians in Gaza say they want the same thing as other people around the world: to be able to live with dignity.

Click on the link below to read more.

What Palestinians want if there's a ceasefire tomorrow

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Ankara "firmly backs" Palestinian group Hamas.

"No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation," he said in a speech in Istanbul. "Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them."

Erdogan has been one of the harshest critics of Israel since the start of its relentless military campaign in Gaza, accusing it of conducting "genocide" in the besieged enclave.

Heavy Israeli air strikes overnight and early this morning destroyed the al-Masry residential tower in Rafah. 

Images shared online show large parts of the tower reduced to rubble. 

The Palestinian health ministry said that several people were heavily wounded in the attack.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that the death toll in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October has now reached 30,960.

The ministry announced that 72,524 people have been wounded in the same timeframe. 

Some 82 Palestinians were killed and 122 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.