Skip next section Overnight Israeli airstrikes kill 20 in Gaza, Health Ministry says
03/19/2024March 19, 2024
Overnight Israeli airstrikes kill 20 in Gaza, Health Ministry says
Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gazan city of Rafah and central parts of the territory killed 20 Palestinians in the early hours of Tuesday, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry has said.
Medical officials said that 14 people had been killed in Rafah, where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge, with dozens of others wounded.
An airstrike on a house in the central al-Nuseirat refugee camp killed six other people, the officials said.
The conflict, which is now in its sixth month, began when Hamas Islamist militants stormed into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages according to Israeli accounts.
Israel’s assault since then has killed more than 31,000 Gazans, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and the European Union, as well as Israel.
https://p.dw.com/p/4dsxC
Skip next section Blinken says all Gazans at risk from lack of food
03/19/2024March 19, 2024
Blinken says all Gazans at risk from lack of food
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the whole of Gaza’s population is experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity,” stressing the to the Palestinian territory.
“According to the most respected measure of these things, 100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” Blinken told a press conference during an official visit to the Philippines.
Blinken’s comments came on the eve of his return to the Middle East, where he will visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt to discuss efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and increase aid deliveries.
A food security assessment by the United Nations on Monday warned that half of Gazans are experiencing “catastrophic” hunger. Famine is projected to hit northern Gaza by May unless there is urgent intervention.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, saying there was “no time to lose.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership on Monday said that “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war,” a statement that was denied by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
https://p.dw.com/p/4dsx5
Skip next section More DW coverage of the Israel-Hamas war
03/19/2024March 19, 2024
More DW coverage of the Israel-Hamas war
The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says President Joe Biden has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington in the coming days.
Biden is keen to express Washington’s reservations about the planned offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, Sullivan said, and was eager to discuss possible alternatives.
In a phone call between the two leaders, Netanyahu was said to have agreed to send such a team.
“The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen,” Sullivan said.
Also on Monday, Israel’s military said its troops killed 20 Palestinian militants and detained scores of others in a raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital to target “senior Hamas terrorists.”
Soldiers moved in with tanks supported by air strikes to hit the area around the territory’s biggest medical center, which is not only crowded with patients but also displaced people.
rc/fb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
https://p.dw.com/p/4dsvx
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