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

Hamas said one its members, Hani Mustafa from the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, was killed in the Israeli strike on a car in the Lebanese southern city of Tyre.

Local media says a Syrian worker who was passing by on his motorcycle was also killed in the strike. Four others were injured.

US President Joe Biden is getting hammered in the Democratic primaries. Though he has no opposition, nearly 400,000 primary voters across multiple states have abandoned him, choosing “uncommitted” instead. 

The protest movement began in the critical swing state of Michigan, where more than 100,000 voters made a statement against Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. In subsequent primaries, hundreds of thousands more followed suit: in Minnesota alone, 20 percent of voters said they were uncommitted.

Many Democrats disapprove of this war and the president who is supporting it. Countrywide, 57 percent of Americans are unhappy with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and 67 percent want a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Fifty-two percent say the US should halt arms shipments to Israel until current hostilities cease; among those who voted for Biden in 2020, that number increases to 62 percent.

Even a majority of American Jews (50 percent) favour a permanent ceasefire, according to recent polling. 

Biden is already paying the price for being out of sync with the Democratic base. He has to do something, and fast - otherwise, this could snowball into an avalanche. This is how movements begin and surefire candidacies fall apart.

READ MORE: Why US humanitarian aid plan is a sham

The European Union is preparing a 7.4 billion euro ($8.08bn or £6.33bn) package aimed at supporting Egypt's economy amid fears that neighbouring conflicts in Gaza and Sudan could further exacerbate the difficult economic situation in the country and raise immigration pressure on Europe, the Financial Times reported.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Cairo on Sunday with the prime ministers of Greece, Italy and Belgium to finalise and announce the agreement.

Israeli police identified the Palestinian who stabbed two Israeli security forces members at the "tunnels" checkpoint near Bethlehem as Muhammad Abu Hamed, a 15-year-old boy from the town of al-Khader.

The police did not give an update on his condition after they shot him.

An Israeli drone targeted a car in Lebanon's southern city of Tyre, with local media reporting at least one death.

Israeli forces said they "neutralised" a Palestinian after he allegedly stabbed two Israelis near the "tunnels" military checkpoint near Bethlehem.

Al Jazeera says it is still unclear whether the Palestinian was killed, or whether those stabbed were soldiers or settlers.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• An Arab diplomat told the Times of Israel that progress has been made regarding a hostage and ceasefire deal in Qatar, as the outlet claims Doha put pressure on Hamas to accept the new proposals
• The Israeli army bombed several areas across the Gaza Strip overnight, killing many people including 10 in Deir al-Balah
• As least four Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids across the West Bank
• The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, accused Israel of using starvation 'as a war arm' in Gaza
• Lebanon's Hezbollah said two of its members were killed in the latest Israeli strike near Baalbek, deep into Lebanese territory

Hello MEE readers.

Tuesday saw the arrival of much-needed aid to Gaza, including a shipment that arrived from the United Nations and Morocco, which used the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to enter Gaza — the first time the crossing was used for allowing aid into Gaza after five months of war.

Hezbollah launched around 100 rockets towards Israel and the occupied Golan Heights in retaliation to a deadly Israeli strike near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek.

Israeli warplanes then struck the area again, saying it hit two command centres near Baalbek.

Here's what else you need to know from today:

• Two lawsuits were announced today regarding the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities. Columbia University was sued over its decision to ban its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. And a group of faculty sued the University of Pennsylvania in an attempt to stop a congressional probe seeking all materials regarding pro-Palestine activity on campus.

• Israeli police shot dead a 13-year-old boy in East Jerusalem who was holding up a firework. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir praised the incident.

• US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that Washington believes the path to peace "does not lie in smashing into Rafah".  Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would press forward with its military campaign and "finish the job" in Rafah.

• UN officials have welcomed the opening of a maritime aid corridor into Gaza, but warned that it was no substitute for a land route to get humanitarian assistance into the enclave. UK foreign secretary David Cameron echoed similar sentiments, calling on Israel to open more land routes into Gaza.

• The French daily newspaper Liberation came under fire for publishing a cartoon that mocks fasting Palestinians in Gaza searching for food.

• A Turkish shipment of humanitarian aid stuck at Israel’s Ashdod port left for Gaza earlier this week, diplomatic sources and a UN spokesperson told MEE.

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem suspended prominent Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian after she said that it was time to "abolish Zionism".

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN refugee agency for Palestine (Unrwa), said that the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza is higher than the total number of children killed in all conflicts around the world for the past four years.

More than 12,300 Palestinian children have been killed since October last year, while the rest of the world say 12,193 children killed in all conflicts taking place around the world from 2019 to 2023.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, in collaboration with Palestine Legal, filed a lawsuit against Columbia University on Tuesday for the suspension of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters.

“For decades, Columbia students have been at the forefront of speaking out against segregation, war and apartheid and SJP and JVP sit squarely in this tradition," Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath said.

“Universities must abide by their own rules and may not punish student groups speaking out for Palestinian rights in the moment when they are most essential – even if donors and lobby groups complain."

Columbia University, based in New York City, suspended the student groups in November.

To read the full story, click below.

Read more: Columbia University sued over suspension of Palestinian and Jewish student groups

A UN report on allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters has been inaccurately portrayed by political leaders and media outlets, driving a “cycle of mass rape propaganda” about Palestinians, according to activists, lawyers and academics.

The UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, issued a report on 4 March examining allegations of sexual violence during the Hamas-led 7 October attacks.

The report followed a series of articles in western newspapers, which painted a picture of mass rape and sexual violence conducted by Palestinian fighters against Israelis. However, those reports have been challenged by activists and pro-Palestinian activists as biased.

“The report does not, in fact, reach many of the conclusions for which it is being lauded in Western media, and several of its findings undermine the Israeli narrative,” The Feminist Solidarity Network for Palestine, a Pro-Palestinian group, wrote in a recent review of the UN report.

Read the full story by clicking here.

A coalition of Palestinian groups and allies announced a plan to protest outside the headquarters of Aipac in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, the day after it concludes its annual policy conference.

The groups include the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Maryland 2 Palestine.

The groups are calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to US aid to Israel, an end to the siege of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, as well as the release of all Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir praised Israel's police after an incident in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, where police shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who lit a firework.

Ben-Gvir said that he "salutes the fighter" who killed the child, claiming that the boy was attempting to shoot the firework at the officer.

According to Haaretz, the firework was not aimed at the police and didn't put them in danger.

In a column for Middle East Eye, John Rees argues that the UK Conservative Party's moves to label the ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations with extremism have shown that the party, and its leader Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, are losing the battle.

Rees writes: "This mass support for the Palestinian movement has, over the months since October, cracked open the establishment political consensus. At the first protest, only one MP, Jeremy Corbyn, attended the march, highlighting the almost complete gulf between the mass reaction against Israel’s actions and the politicians’ almost universal endorsement. 

But since then, a home secretary, Suella Braverman, has been fired after her attempt to ban protests and call out the far right to 'protect' war memorials ended in a riot between far-right Tommy Robinson supporters and the police in Whitehall.

A cabinet reshuffle followed, the first in modern history to be the direct result of a confrontation between ministers and a mass movement.

From that moment on, the cracks opened in the political establishment. The Liberal Democrats called for a ceasefire, as did the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

The Labour Party has lost more than 100 local councillors, and the debacle of the Rochdale by-election saw it withdraw its candidate, Azhar Ali, after accusations of antisemitism were levelled at him, thus paving the way for George Galloway to win on a tide of support for Palestine.

And, of course, all this is happening in an international environment where Israel has become politically isolated, facing investigation by the International Court of Justice for genocide, and protected at several crucial UN votes only by the US veto and UK abstention."

You can read the full column by clicking below.

Opinion: Sunak's Tories know they're losing the battle over Palestine protests

The BBC spoke with Palestinian medical staff at al-Nassar Hospital in Gaza, who said they were "blindfolded, detained, forced to strip and repeatedly beaten" by Israeli forces after a raid at the hospital last month.

Ahmed Abu Sabha, one doctor at the hospital, said he was detained for a week and that he had muzzled dogs set upon him. His hand was also broken by an Israeli soldier.

Other doctors who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity said they were beaten, "doused with cold water, and forced to kneel in uncomfortable positions for hours".

The BBC reached out to the Israeli military for comment, and it responded by denying that medical staff were harmed during their operation on the hospital.

They said that "any abuse of detainees is … strictly prohibited".

The Israeli military has laid siege to and raided several hospitals in Gaza since launching a ground invasion on the enclave in late October.

Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces in Gaza spoke to Middle East Eye, describing how they were physically tortured with dogs and electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and degrading conditions.

You can read that story by clicking here.