March 7: CIA chief said in region to try and salvage floundering hostage talks

CIA chief arrives in Qatar after quietly spending day in Egypt to push mediators on hostage deal

Protesters call for the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 7, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

US Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns has reportedly arrived in Qatar after quietly spending the past day in Egypt, as the Biden administration makes what may be a last-ditch attempt to secure a hostage agreement before Ramadan begins at the beginning of next week.

The talks appeared to reach an impasse earlier today as a Hamas delegation left Cairo without any breakthrough reported in the talks being brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US.

Burns was not planning to make a stop in Israel during his regional tour, a US official told CNN, adding that there was also not slated to be another four-way meeting in Doha with the intelligence chiefs from the US, Egypt and Israel along with Qatar’s prime minister.

CNN said hopes were fading for a deal to be reached before Ramadan but the Walla news site said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told visiting hostage families in Washington on Wednesday that the US would continue working to secure a deal even after the holy month begins around Monday.

Sullivan told the families that the deal on the table was reasonable and that the US would continue to try and put pressure on Hamas via Egypt and Qatar over the weekend, Walla said.

An Israeli official told the Ynet news site, though, that Jerusalem’s assessment is that Hamas has made a decision to stonewall and allow the war to continue into Ramadan.

New lawsuit against MIT accuses university of allowing antisemitism on campus

Screen capture from video of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel students demonstrating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 13, 2023. (X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Two Jewish students filed a federal lawsuit today against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), accusing the university of allowing antisemitism on campus that has resulted in them being intimidated, harassed and assaulted.

The lawsuit mirrors similar legal actions filed since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including at Columbia University, New York University, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

In the MIT lawsuit, the students and a nonprofit that fights antisemitism, StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice accuse the university of approving antisemitic activities on campus and tolerating discrimination and harassment against Jewish students and faculty.

“As a result of MIT’s blatant and intentional disregard for its legal and contractual obligations to its students, plaintiffs and other students have suffered injury to themselves and their educational experience,” the lawsuit alleges. “Jewish and Israeli students at MIT have felt unsafe attending classes, have in some instances deferred graduation dates or exams, and some professors have left the university.”

A statement from MIT said the university does not typically comment on pending litigation.

“Generally, we’d note MIT has established processes in place to address concerns of discrimination and harassment,” according to the statement.

The lawsuit is requesting the court prohibit MIT from “establishing, implementing, instituting, maintaining, or executing policies, practices, or protocols that penalize or discriminate against Jewish students.”

It also is demanding that MIT take any preventive measures including firing staff and expelling students who engage in antisemitic behavior.

The lawsuit also calls for the university to communicate to the school community that it will “condemn, investigate, and punish any conduct that harasses members of the Jewish community, or others on the basis of their ethnic or ancestral background.”

Last month, MIT suspended an anti-Israel student group that has held demonstrations against the war in Gaza.

Protests over the war have roiled campuses across the US and reignited a debate over free speech. College presidents and other leaders have struggled to articulate when political speech crosses into harassment and discrimination, with both Jewish and Arab students raising concerns that their schools are doing too little to protect them.

The issue took center stage in December when the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT testified at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus. A Republican lawmaker equated the use of the word “intifada” with calling for the genocide of Jewish people, and then asked if such rhetoric violates campus policies. The presidents offered lawyerly answers and declined to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech.

Their answers prompted weeks of backlash from donors and alumni, ultimately leading to the resignations of Liz Magill at Penn and Claudine Gay at Harvard.

MIT’s Sally Kornbluth remains president of the university.

3 rockets fired from Gaza toward Sderot; 1 projectile makes impact with no injuries, damage

Three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward the southern city of Sderot a short while ago.

The municipality says one projectile impacted within the city limits, while the other two impacted outside of it.

There are no reports of damage or injuries.

Sirens had sounded in Sderot following the rocket launches.

UN hails US plan to establish Gaza maritime aid corridor

International focus should be on large-scale distribution and entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, but any way to deliver more aid is “obviously good,” the United Nations says after the US announced plans to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza.

“Any way to get more aid into Gaza, whether by sea or airdrop, is obviously good,” says UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric when asked about the plan for a temporary port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian assistance.

Delivery of aid by land, however, is more cost- and volume-effective, Dujarric says, and “we need more entry points and we need a larger volume of aid to come in by land.”

The UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine.

Some aid can enter Hamas-run Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt and Kerem Shalom from Israel.

Before the conflict, Gaza relied on 500 trucks with supplies entering daily.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

CIA director expected in region as hostage talks appear to flounder — report

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill in March 8, 2023. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP)

CIA Director William Burns is expected in the region in the coming days as talks on a potential temporary truce in Gaza and a release of hostages appear to falter, Channel 12 reports.

Burns will meet with representatives from Egypt and Qatar, who are also mediating the elusive deal. The visit will be part of a last-ditch effort by the US to secure a deal before the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with US officials warning that Hamas may try to stir up violence over the course of the month, Channel 12 reports.

Hamas’s delegation left Cairo earlier today, as its stance in the negotiating process has toughened, according to reports. The terror group, which led the October 7 massacre, is again insisting on a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from Gaza — demands that Israel has rejected outright.

Israel’s war cabinet is meeting tonight to discuss the temporary truce deal currently on the table. According to the report, Israeli officials who are familiar with discussions are asking the cabinet to give them a more flexible “mandate” to negotiate a deal, a request that is unlikely to be granted.

Two main sticking points are Hamas’s demands that displaced residents from northern Gaza be allowed to return to the area and that Israel release some 1,500 security prisoners in exchange for at least some of the hostages, the report says.

Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar has renewed contact with other Hamas officials after days of reported silence and has conveyed a hardened negotiating stance.

The tougher stance, according to the report, comes amid “signs of increased tension between Israel and the US.”

US officials said today that Hamas is holding up a six-week ceasefire deal on the table by refusing to release the sick, elderly and female hostages that it is holding in Gaza.

While there have been reports that Hamas has walked away from the talks in Cairo after they apparently hit a wall, the US officials insist that a deal is still possible and that they’re still working to reach one. “We see this as the path to get the hostages home,” one of them says.

Trudeau claims no decision yet on funding for UNRWA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa had not decided whether it would resume funding to the UN Palestinian refugee agency after Israel provided evidence that some staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas massacre.

Earlier this week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Associated Press cited unnamed government sources as saying Canada would reverse its January 26 decision to pause any additional funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

But Trudeau, asked directly today whether this was the case, says Ottawa was waiting for the results of an internal United Nations probe into the Israeli allegations that over a dozen UNRWA staff had been involved in the shock onslaught.

“We’re not making any announcements today… we will continue to look at this situation. We will continue to watch the UN as it looks into what’s happening within this organization,” he tells reporters in Toronto.

A total of 16 donors, including the United States and Britain, have paused their funding to UNRWA.

Israel welcomes US plan for ‘temporary dock’ for Gaza aid, Israeli official says

Israel welcomes a United States plan to build a “temporary dock” on the Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aid by sea and will coordinate the development of the project with the US, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

Israel “fully supports” the creation of such a facility, the official says on condition of anonymity, after US officials said US President Joe Biden would announce in his State of the Union speech that the US military will construct a port to receive food, medicine and other supplies for civilians in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

PM’s refusal to help with security for Gantz’s UK trip risked legal incident, including his potential arrest — TV report

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz (L) meets with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in London on March 6, 2024. (David Cameron/X)

The Prime Minister’s Office’s refusal to help coordinate war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s overseas trip to the UK this week, including on matters related to his security, exposed Gantz and his delegation to potential legal troubles, including lawsuits and arrest warrants, relating to the war in Gaza, Channel 12 reports.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to be infuriated by Gantz’s overseas visit, which the minister arranged without his consent, and which started in DC on Monday and Tuesday, and continued to London on Wednesday.

The Channel 12 report says tonight that the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was concerned with the anti-Israel protests and moves among pro-Palestinian activists to potentially file legal motions against Gantz or members of his delegation, including seeking their arrests, and turned to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help prepare for the trip.

The UK foreign office sought to extend official status to Gantz’s visit, and thus to provide diplomatic immunity against any legal suits and arrest warrants, but quickly encountered trouble, the report says.

Having initially begun working with the British authorities to ensure that Gantz would have protected status, and having received Gantz’s details from the minister’s office, the Israeli Foreign Ministry after a few hours stopped responding to its British counterpart, according to the report, which said the British office was “shocked” by the developments.

Not wanting to take any chances of an international incident on its soil, the UK Foreign Office turned to the British embassy in Israel to successfully complete the process of providing official state status to Gantz and the delegation.

Yesterday, Channel 12 reported that at Netanyahu’s instruction, Israeli Ambassador to Britain Tzipi Hotovely ordered embassy staff not to assist the Shin Bet with making security arrangements for Gantz’s visit, among them logistical matters such as transportation and lodging.

That report stressed that Gantz’s security would not be harmed, because Gantz’s own staff and the relevant Israeli entity took care of various unspecified arrangements and coordinated them with the British authorities.

The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on tonight’s report and the PMO did not respond to a request for comment, Channel 12 says. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that matter had nothing to do with him, it adds.

IDF carries out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon town of Zibqin

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes against two buildings used by Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon town of Zibqin a short while ago.

Earlier today, the IDF said troops downed a Hezbollah explosive-laden drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, near Bar’am.

Another Hezbollah drone crashed in the Mount Hermon area, causing no injuries, the IDF says.

Several rockets and missiles were fired in the last few hours against Mount Dov and Metula. The IDF says it is shelling the launch sites with artillery.

Biden’s SOTU to address ‘horrific’ Oct. 7 attack, hostages, Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, protecting civilians

US President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, flanked by US Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 1, 2022, in Washington. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)

In his State of the Union address tonight, US President Joe Biden will address Hamas’s “horrific attacks” on October 7 and “Israel’s right to go after Hamas and those responsible,” a senior US official briefing reporters says.

Biden will also stress “Israel’s fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and also to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the official says, noting the added burden faced by the IDF, given that Hamas hides and operates among civilians.

The president will also “speak to the plight of the hostages,” highlighting his efforts to broker a truce deal in November that allowed for the release of over 100 hostages. At least one of those freed hostages will be in the gallery for Biden’s speech, along with over a dozen relatives of hostages still in Gaza or of those who have been released.

“This is something we are working on constantly, not just to save the lives of the hostages and get them out, but also because this is a path to a ceasefire,” the official says.

“A ceasefire… will facilitate and enable the humanitarian surge that we’re working on. That is why [it] is first and foremost on our minds, on the President’s mind. He’ll obviously speak to that tonight,” the official adds.

US official: There’s no hard deadline for truce, but we know Haniyeh calling for violence over Ramadan

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory sign upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, June 27, 2021. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

One of the senior US officials briefing reporters acknowledges that the Biden administration is working to secure a temporary ceasefire deal before Ramadan, which starts around March 10. However, they clarify that “there’s no hard and fast deadline on this negotiation.”

“We recognize that extremists could try to use Ramadan to spark something that would be deeply unfortunate in that holy month, and we want to make sure that we have a peaceful period so people can worship,” the senior official says. “We’re working that through with the Israelis, with the Palestinian Authority, with the Jordanians and others.”

“[Ismail] Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, has called for violence over Ramadan. We recognize that this is something that they might very well try to do. It’s always a volatile period… We fully recognize what [Hamas’s] intentions might be.”

Six-week ceasefire deal on table will allow Palestinians to return to north Gaza — US official

Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City on March 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group. (AFP)

Offering new details on the deal being negotiated, senior Biden administration officials briefing reporters say the ceasefire would start with a six-week first stage and be structured in a manner in which two more stages could be subsequently added.

The deal would also see the “repositioning of Israeli forces” during that first stage and also allow for Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.

This has been a sticking point for Israel, which has publicly rejected this demand to date, claiming it would allow for a resurgence of Hamas in that half of the Strip.

“We’re returning people to the north. That is part of the arrangement that has been worked out,” the official says.

The plan to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza expedites the need to improve the mechanisms for delivering humanitarian aid throughout the Strip, which is why the Biden administration is advancing the maritime corridor and other delivery mechanisms, one of the senior officials said.

Hamas holding up temporary truce by refusing to release sick, elderly and female hostages — US officials

Protesters call for the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 7, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Senior Biden administration officials briefing reporters say that Hamas is holding up a six-week ceasefire deal on the table with Israel by refusing to release the sick, elderly and female hostages that it is holding in Gaza.

“There could be at least a six-week ceasefire today if Hamas would agree to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, including women, the elderly, the sick and the wounded,” says one of the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity. “The onus right now is on Hamas.”

“The fundamental element on [Hamas’s] side is releasing the sick, the elderly and the woman. That is right now the holdup,” a second official adds.

While there have been reports that Hamas has walked away from the talks in Cairo after they apparently hit a wall, the US officials insist that a deal is still possible and that they’re still working to reach one. “We see this as the path to get the hostages home,” one of them says.

Spain to give UNRWA extra 20 million euros, says foreign minister

Spain will send the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA an additional 20 million euros ($21.9 million) in aid, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares says.

This will be on top of the 3.5 million euros ($3.8 million) the country has already pledged in February.

Spain was not among the donor countries that have frozen funding to the UN agency amid evidence and documentation provided by Israel that some of its staff participated directly in the Hamas October 7 massacre and others have ties to terror operatives.

Last month, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant named 12 UNRWA staffers whom Israel found participated in the attack on October 7. The IDF said its intelligence shows that some 450 terror operatives in Gaza, mostly Hamas members, are also employed by UNRWA.

This week, the IDF released audio recordings that it says incriminate two additional UNRWA employees, one of whom tells a friend in Gaza that he captured a “sabaya,” a term used by Islamic State jihadists, which means sex slave.

Jerusalem has long argued that UNRWA should be disbanded, and the recent allegations have led several donor countries to announce funding freezes, increasing concerns that the agency, which says it is the main conduit for aid for millions in the Strip during the Israel-Hamas war, could stop operating in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East within weeks.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on Monday in a letter to the General Assembly’s president that his agency is at a “breaking point,” as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the agency and humanitarian needs soar.

US to build pier off Gaza coast that will allow for maritime delivery of aid — officials

A Palestinian fisherman arrives with a boat at the port Gaza City early on December 1, 2022. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

US President Joe Biden will announce in his State of the Union address tonight that he has directed the US military to embark on an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza that will allow for the direct delivery of humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean Sea, senior administration officials tell reporters on a briefing call.

The idea for a marine humanitarian corridor into Gaza has been floated for years, but never got off the ground due to Israeli reticence and concerns that the existing Gaza City fishing port isn’t equipped for docking large ships. The US made a renewed push for the corridor establishment following last week’s deadly mass-casualty incident where dozens of Palestinians were killed trying to collect aid in northern Gaza.

Believing that the best way to ensure civilians receive aid is by flooding the strip with assistance by land, air and sea, the US has airdropped food over Gaza three times since Saturday, and will over the coming weeks begin work to establish a causeway facility off the coast of Gaza that will be able to receive large ships carrying hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medicine and temporary shelters each day, according to the administration officials.

The US is coordinating with Israel to ensure its security concerns are met and with the UN and humanitarian organizations on the ground in order to ensure that the aid is properly distributed.

Initial shipments will arrive to the port via Cyprus’s Larnaca Port, where they will ostensibly undergo security inspections.

It will take “a number of weeks” to get the temporary pier built and running, one of the officials briefing reporters said, adding that the US hopes that the port will turn into “a commercially operated facility over time.”

The officials clarified that the project will not require US boots on the ground in Gaza. Instead, US military personnel will be present on vessels offshore while the pier is being built.

“We’re not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership, and we are building a coalition of countries to address this urgent need,” one of the senior officials says.

UAE, Bahrain condemn Israel’s latest settlement approvals

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signatories to the Abraham Accords, have condemned Israel’s latest settlement approvals made yesterday, which also drew harsh US criticism.

Israeli government ministers announced yesterday that an Israeli planning body has advanced permits for 3,500 new homes in West Bank settlements near Jerusalem. The US branded the move as illegal. “Settlements continue to be inconsistent with international law,” US State Department Matthew Miller said in response.

Today, the UAE’s and Bahrain’s foreign ministries also issued condemnations.

The UAE says it rejects “all practices in contravention of resolutions on international legitimacy, which threaten further escalation and instability in the region, and impede endeavors to achieve peace and stability.”

It also “stressed the need to support all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as end illegal practices that threaten the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”

Bahrain says the approvals were “in violation of international law principles and a threat to the chances of achieving peace and stability in the region.”

Sweden joins NATO as 32nd member, as war in Ukraine prompts security rethink

Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO today with the handover of documents at a ceremony in Washington, a historic move that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says marks a “strategic debacle” by Russia.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson handed over the final documentation to the US government today, the last step in a drawn-out process to secure the backing of all members to join the military alliance.

“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he received Sweden’s accession documents from Kristersson.

“This is a historic moment for Sweden, for our alliance and for the transatlantic relationship,” Blinken says.

For NATO, the accessions of Sweden and Finland – which shares a 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) border with Russia – are the most significant additions in decades. It is also a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has sought to prevent any further strengthening of the alliance.

“Today is a truly historic day. Sweden is now a member of NATO,” Kristersson said.

“The reason this is such a strong, powerful fit, is because Sweden embodies and promotes the core values that are at the core of NATO – democracy, liberty, the rule of law,” Blinken said.

Sweden will benefit from the alliance’s common defense guarantee under which an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.

Hamas’s Sinwar said to surface, toughens stance in hostage, truce talks — report

Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar has renewed contact with other Hamas officials after days of reported silence to convey a hardened negotiating stance and insist on a permanent ceasefire, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing “officials familiar with the discussions.”

The tougher stance, according to the report, comes amid “signs of increased tension between Israel and the US.”

The officials say Sinwar’s demand that Israel “commit to discuss a permanent stop in the fighting” puts him “at odds with other Hamas officials.” Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based politburo chief, is said to be more willing to accept the Paris framework, under which a six-week truce would come into effect and some 40 hostages would be released while talks would continue on other issues, including the possibility of a more permanent ceasefire and an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.

Egyptian officials cited in the report say Sinwar believes Hamas “has the upper hand in negotiations” given internal divisions in Israel, and “mounting US pressure on Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.”

A Hamas delegation left Cairo earlier today, where talks were being held and now appear to be stalled.

It was unclear whether they would return, Egyptian officials tell WSJ, with hopes the delegation may come back on Sunday.

Commando forces continue operations in Khan Younis’s Qatari-funded Hamad Town complex

Troops operate in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, in a handout image published by the IDF, March 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF releases footage of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 and the Maglan commando unit operating in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The troops have been raiding the multi-story buildings in the Qatari-funded neighborhood, where the IDF says there is Hamas infrastructure.

According to the IDF, the commandos have seized dozens of firearms and killed numerous gunmen in fighting in Hamad, including with sniper fire and by calling in airstrikes.

Recently, two Hamas armed gunmen surrendered to troops in Hamad, the IDF says. Hundreds more operatives have been captured in recent days.

Italy rejects appointment of former settlement mayor as Israeli ambassador

File: Ma'ale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel at a protest tent outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, February 4, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Italy rejected the appointment of former Ma’ale Adumim mayor Benny Kashriel as the new Israeli ambassador, a Foreign Ministry official tells The Times of Israel, confirming an earlier report from Ynet.

Rome did not want an ambassador who was mayor of a West Bank settlement and had also headed the Yesha Council, the main political arm of the settlement movement. Kashriel had been appointed as envoy by current Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who headed the Foreign Ministry until earlier this year.

Instead, Kashriel will be envoy to Hungary.

The Foreign Ministry is now looking for a career diplomat to fill the role, potentially Yoni Peled, who had been appointed as ambassador to Hungary.

Israel says South Africa exploiting World Court on behalf of Hamas

Israel accuses South Africa of acting “as the legal arm of Hamas” after Pretoria again petitioned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take additional measures against Israel.

“South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages,” Israel’s foreign ministry says.

“The repeated requests for provisional measures made by South Africa in order to assist Hamas are yet another cynical exploitation of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which has already twice rejected the baseless attempts to deny Israel its right and obligation of self-defense,” it adds.

A South African government spokesperson dismissed the accusation.

Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s department of international relations and cooperation, said: “South Africa has spelled out its concerns in its application to the ICJ. They (Israel) know what they are doing. It is absurd to keep saying that South Africa is acting on behalf of Hamas.”

US military carries out new airdrop of aid into Gaza, its third since Saturday

A general view taken from the Israeli side of the border shows aid parcels being airdropped over the northern Gaza Strip on March 5, 2024. (Nicolas GARCIA / AFP)

The US military said it carried out its third airdrop of aid into Gaza today, dropping more than 38,000 meals amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the war-torn coastal enclave.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine.

In a statement, the US military says the aid was dropped by US and Jordanian C-130 aircraft in northern Gaza.

Aid dropped by air is an expensive and insufficient alternative to aid that is trucked in, given the scale of the humanitarian crisis, US officials say.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is pressing for greater access by land and also exploring a maritime option.

Gallant swipes at Netanyahu: ‘Taking responsibility is source of authority’

From left: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi at a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF's officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1, March 7, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appears to take a jab at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a speech this afternoon in which he extols sound leadership and personal responsibility.

“The ability to lead consists of three things: a commitment to the mission, personal example, and the internalization that taking responsibility is the source of authority,” Gallant says at a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF’s officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1.

Netanyahu has infamously refused to accept direct responsibility for the failures of leadership that led to the October 7 massacre and has lashed out at the Israeli media amid discontent over the war cabinet’s handling of the campaign against Hamas.

Yesterday, a state commission of inquiry found Netanyahu personally responsible for the April 2021 Mount Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed in a crush at the hilltop gravesite of a second-century sage in northern Israel despite numerous safety warnings ahead of time. It did not propose sanctions against Netanyahu, however.

His ruling Likud party then derided the commission of inquiry’s mandate, given that it was established by his political rivals, former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and charged that it was being used as a “political weapon” against the premier.

During his speech this afternoon, Gallant spoke of the “difficult” war Israel has been fighting on many fronts, in the north and the south and in places that are “far way” and “secret.”

Hamas, he says, has only two options: “Surrender or death, there is no third option.”

“We are achieving the goals of the war: the dismantling of Hamas as a military system and a governing system, and the return of all the hostages to their homes,” he says.

“This is a fight for our home, for our values as a nation, and for our right to exist as a Jewish, democratic society in our country, our homeland, the State of Israel,” says Gallant.

He says Israel has a moral duty to keep fighting “until we defeat Hamas in all of Gaza and return our hostages.”

Eurovision organizers finally approve Israel’s revised song entry amid boycott calls

File: Eden Golan, winner of the reality show 'The Next Star to the Eurovision' during the final of the show on February 6, 2024. (Koko/Flash90)

Eurovision organizers have officially approved Israel’s revised song for the contest, securing the country’s spot in the competition amid a range of boycott calls.

In a statement, the Kan public broadcaster says that Eden Golan will be performing the new song, titled “Hurricane,” at the contest this year in Malmo, Sweden, in May.

The European Broadcasting Union informed Kan this afternoon that the new version of the song, which had been originally titled “October Rain,” was approved for participation, after the earlier version was disqualified for purported political messaging.

The new version has the same melody but entirely new lyrics.

“Hurricane,” which was written by Keren Peles, Avi Ohayon and Stav Beger, will be revealed in full in a live broadcast on Sunday evening.

US envoy to Israel: ‘It’s a mistake’ to say hostage talks are over, conversations are ongoing

Speaking at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew says “it’s a mistake” to think hostage negotiations have ended.

“There are still conversations going on, there is still back and forth, the differences are being narrowed.”

“It is not yet the case that it is broken down,” he says.

While the goal of getting a deal by Ramadan “is very important,” the ambassador says, it is more important to get it done whenever it can be achieved.

He says finding a way to achieve a deal with Hamas is important first of all because of the welfare of the hostages.

“Every day it’s getting harder and harder to be optimistic” about the safety of the hostages, he says.

There are other important benefits of a truce, argues Lew: “A pause would increase the likelihood of a diplomatic solution in the north. A pause would increase the likelihood of Saudi normalization going forward.”

In order for normalization to happen, however, there must an “over the horizon” conversation about a Palestinian state, he insists.

If the hostage issue is not resolved, he says, “I don’t know how to put the other pieces in a place where I can get them resolved,” referring to normalization with Arab countries in the region and a diplomatic solution to fighting against Hezbollah.

He calls such a deal “achievable.”

“What has to be accomplished diplomatically is smaller than it was,” he says, pointing out that both sides don’t want to go to war.

Turning to the “day after” the war, Lew says that future administration of Gaza is “at the heart of every plan” for the future.

“The workforce is going to have to come from the people from the area, many of whom have worked for the Palestinian Authority,” he says. “It’s going to have to be a vetted group of people.”

The key, he says, is security on the streets. He points at the deadly melee around an aid convoy in Gaza City last week as an example of what a breakdown in security leads to.

IDF chief: All parts of Israeli society should be drafted into the military

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks at a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF's officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1, March 7, 2024. (Screenshot/YouTube)

In comments aimed at the ultra-Orthodox community, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says all members of Israeli society should be drafted into the military.

“At this time, it is not enough to praise the existing diversity in the IDF, but to call for it to be expanded, and to add troops from all corners of society,” Halevi says at a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF’s officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF’s officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1, March 7, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

“This is the need of the hour, not only because the IDF needs to fill the missing ranks and expand its ranks, but mainly to strengthen social cohesion, the source of our resilience and strength and an important component of Israeli antifragility,” he adds.

Netanyahu: ‘We are in an existential war, Israel has to win’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cadets graduation ceremony at the IDF's officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1, March 7, 2024. (Screenshot/YouTube)

Israel is “in an existential war” that it “has to win,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon at a cadet graduation ceremony at the IDF’s officers school in southern Israel, known as Bahad 1.

Netanyahu vows that Israel will “strike our enemies until total victory,” a phrase he has used repeatedly in the past months of war against Hamas.

He promises to eliminate the “murderous regime of Hamas, eliminate terrorists, destroy tunnels,” and pursue the perpetrators of the October 7 attack while doing everything possible to “locate the hostages.”

The IDF is advancing impressively to reach its war goal, while minimizing civilian casualties in Gaza, says Netanyahu, slamming Hamas for its tactics of using Gazan “civilians as human shields, and using “subterranean tunnels spanning many kilometers.”

The IDF “will continue to act against Hamas in all corners of Gaza, including in Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold,” the premier vows, to applause.

“Whoever tells us not to operate in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen,” he says.

“Our enemies have brought on themselves [destruction]. He who spoke about spiderwebs is seeing lions,” a reference to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah calling Israel a “fragile spiderweb” following the October 7 Hamas massacre.

Netanyahu notes the mounting international pressure on Israel to end the war and says Israel will withstand these pressures as its aim is “total victory in war.”

“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” he says.

Western leaders should understand that “when we defeat the murderers of October 7th, we prevent the next September 11th,” he says. “That is why you must stand behind Israel and behind the IDF,” he adds.

“We will all stand together, heart to heart, [and] remember our fallen and ensure… victory,” says Netanyahu.

Reuters contributed to this report.

IDF bombards Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes on buildings used by Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon towns of Aitaroun and Ayta ash-Shab a short while ago.

It publishes footage showing a strike on a building in Ayta ash-Shab.

מטוסי קרב תקפו לפני זמן קצר שני מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב עיתרון ובמרחב עייתא א-שעב.

אתמול בשעות הערב הותקפו מבנה צבאי של הארגון במרחב אל מטמורה ועמדת תצפית של הארגון במרחב אל ג׳יבין>> pic.twitter.com/f7F8eYb3DO

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 7, 2024

The IDF also says it struck a Hezbollah building in Matmoura and an observation post in Jebbayn last night.

Rockets and missiles were fired today by Hezbollah at Rosh Hanikra, Ya’ara, and other locations along the border. The IDF says it shelled the launch sites with artillery.

US threatens fresh resolution against Iran at IAEA over nuclear ‘stonewalling’

The United States is threatening future action against Iran at the UN nuclear watchdog if Tehran keeps “stonewalling” the watchdog by denying it the cooperation and answers it seeks on issues including long-unexplained uranium traces.

At a quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors, Washington again tells Iran to cooperate with IAEA inspectors who for years have been seeking explanations from Tehran on the origin of uranium particles at undeclared sites.

The United States has stopped short, for now, of seeking a resolution against Iran, however. Diplomats have cited the US presidential election in November as a reason Washington has been reluctant to do that. Tehran bristles at such resolutions and often responds by stepping up its activities.

However, it says if Iran does not provide the necessary cooperation soon, it would act.

“We believe we have come to the point that we and the broader international community must consider anew how to respond to Iran’s continued stonewalling,” the United States says in a statement to the board meeting. “We cannot allow Iran’s current pattern of behavior to continue.”

“It is our strongly held view that Iran’s continuing lack of credible cooperation provides grounds for pursuing further Board of Governors action, including the possibility of additional resolutions and consideration of whether Iran is once again in noncompliance with its safeguards obligations,” it adds.

Hezbollah says it fired rockets at Israel after Lebanese civilian killed

Hezbollah claims responsibility for a third attack on northern Israel, saying it fired Katyusha rockets at the community of Avdon, about half an hour after sirens sounded there and in nearby Ya’ara.

There are no reports of injuries or damage in the attack.

Hezbollah claims the attack is in response to Israeli shelling on Dhayra, which it claims killed a civilian.

IDF said to deny Lebanese report on March 15 war ultimatum

Military officials deny a Lebanese report that Israel has placed a March 15 deadline on a diplomatic deal to end fighting in the north before escalating the conflict with the Hezbollah terror group into a full-blown war, Channel 13 reports.

“There’s no date for going to war in Lebanon,” an unnamed source is quoted saying.

IDF lays out plans for internal review of failures ahead of October 7

Israeli soldiers stand near the body of a Palestinian terrorist in Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza Strip, on October 10, 2023. (Thomas COEX / AFP)

The IDF today sent out protocols to commanders on how their respective units are to carry out internal investigations into the military’s failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre, the army announces.

The investigations will focus on a timeframe starting from the March 2018 Hamas-led Gaza border riots until October 10, 2023, the point when Israeli troops re-established control of southern Israel.

The findings are expected to be presented by commanders to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi by the beginning of June, according to the army.

IDF troops stand atop a tank in a field near the kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel on October 14, 2023. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP)

Units seen as having a role in the failure to notice Hamas preparations or adequately prepare for the terror group’s October 7 onslaught will investigate the following four main subjects:

• The development of the IDF’s perception of Gaza, with an emphasis on the border, starting in 2018. This examination will also include a look at the army’s conception of its own defenses and its operational plans against threats in Gaza.
• The IDF’s intelligence assessments of Hamas from 2018 until the outbreak of the war. This examination will look at the military’s threat scenarios, the development of the IDF’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, and how the intelligence was audited, including the so-called devil’s advocate unit which is tasked with questioning IDF assessments and conceptions.
• The intelligence and decision-making process on the eve of October 7, as well as the days leading up to it. This examination will look at all the decisions that were made at all ranks to clarify what went wrong.
• The period between October 7 and 10, when troops restored control over all communities and army bases in southern Israel which had been invaded by Hamas. This examination will analyze the battles that took place, and look into each unit’s command and control, formations, and orders given.

The IDF will also probe five more subjects: Major battles amid the fighting; the mobilization of reservists and the military’s logistical response; long-term planning, including munition stocks and spare parts for weapons and vehicles; the handling of the dead from October 7; and the military’s continued functioning.

In a missive sent to troops today, Halevi says the internal investigations are to help the IDF learn.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (center) and senior IDF officials meet in northern Israel, February 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

“We experienced difficult incidents at the beginning of the fighting, we failed to protect civilians, a task of utmost importance. If we do not courageously analyze what we have done, we will find it difficult to learn and improve, we will find it difficult to stand up to the citizens of Israel and say that we have looked into it and learned and will know how to protect them better,” he writes.

The IDF says the internal probes are “necessary” for the military to be able to improve amid the ongoing fighting, as well as work to return displaced Israelis from northern Israel amid daily attacks by Hezbollah.

The investigations are not related to planned external probes of the army’s conduct in the lead-up to October 7, which are currently on hold.

Plans for the independent review were met with protests from government leaders, who apparently feared they could be criticized.

Herzog to focus on hostages in lightning trip to Netherlands Sunday

President Isaac Herzog will depart for the Netherlands on Sunday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen.

According to the President’s office, his one-day visit will focus on efforts to release the hostages in Gaza, and on the rise of antisemitism after October 7.

Herzog will also participate in the inauguration of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, van der Bellen, Rutte, German Bundestag President Manuela Schwesig, the mayor of Amsterdam, and Jewish leaders.

Herzog will meet with families of hostages visiting the country and will be accompanied by the family of Major (Res.) Yitzhar Hoffman, who was killed in battle in January. Hoffman’s family was saved from the Nazis by Dutch gentiles recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Hamas says talks on truce deal to resume next week

Hamas says talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will resume next week after its delegation left Cairo with negotiations seemingly stuck.

“Hamas’s delegation left Cairo this morning for consultation with the leadership of the movement, with negotiations and efforts continuing to stop the aggression, return the displaced and bring in relief aid to our people,” a Hamas statement says.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha says Israel “refuses to commit to and give guarantees regarding the ceasefire, the return of the displaced, and withdrawal from the areas of its incursion.”

But he said the talks are still ongoing and will resume next week.

There is no immediate comment from Israel.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri says Israel has been “thwarting” efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt during four days of talks hosted by Cairo.

Guns, bomb parts found in raid on Islamic State cell, Russia says

Russia’s TASS News agency says a large cache of weapons were found in a raid on an Islamic State cell accused of plotting to attack a Moscow synagogue.

“Firearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device were found and seized,” it says.

Russian security agency FSB says the ISIS cell was based in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow; its members were killed when they put up resistance, according to state media reports.

The Zvezda news outlet, close to Russia’s army and security apparatus, publishes an FSB video appearing to show two dead bodies inside a house, alongside guns, ammunition and knives found during a search.

❗🇷🇺⚔️🏴‍☠️ – Officials of the Russian FSB in the Kaluga region neutralized a cell of the Islamic State terrorist group, whose members were preparing an armed attack on a synagogue in Moscow.

During the arrest, the terrorists resisted and were eliminated. pic.twitter.com/I1LGq3LFMc

— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) March 7, 2024

The FSB does not say how many people were killed in the operation.

It says the fighters were members of the Afghan branch of Islamic State, but did not state their citizenship.

Russia says it thwarted Islamic State plot to attack Moscow synagogue

Police officers patrol outside the Maryina Roscha synagogue in downtown Moscow, January 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, says it prevented an attack on a synagogue in Moscow that was plotted by an Islamic State cell, Russian state news agencies report.

The FSB says that the members of the organization had been planning “to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow,” the RIA news agency quotes the report as saying.

Attackers opened fire during the attempted arrest and were “neutralized by return fire,” the FSB says.

Government repeatedly rejected proposals to kill Sinwar, former Shin Bet head says

Head of the Shin Bet security service Nadav Argaman attends the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset on November 6, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman says the intelligence organization had been pushing for a surprise attack on Hamas’s top echelon for years, but Israel’s political leadership repeatedly shot the idea down.

“Sinwar lives, unfortunately, because Israel does not want to engage in military adventurism,” he says at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv. “If we had launched a surprise attack on Hamas, we would be in a completely different situation.”

He says the idea was pushed by both his predecessor and the current head of the Shin Bet.

“Yoram Cohen, the head of the Shin Bet, brought it up with me and I, as the head of the Shin Bet, brought it up more than one time and Ronen Bar also continued along this line after me,” he says.

Argaman was head of the domestic intelligence agency under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2016, and for several weeks under Naftali Bennett in 2021. He joins others in criticizing the government’s tacit policy of viewing Hamas as a rational adversary that Israel could live alongside uneasily rather than seeking to destroy it long ago.

“Israel decided that it will buy calm even if it came with a very high price later on,” he maintains, adding that Israel “has become addicted to calm.”

Argaman calls for the resignation of Netanyahu’s “disastrous government,” and blames it for preventing the creation of an American-led coalition of Sunni Arab countries.

Touching on ultra-Orthodox and Arab draft exemptions, he says citizenship in Israel should be conditioned on military or national service.

White House said to ask for list of upcoming arms sales to Israel

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters before he boards Air Force One, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Hagerstown, MD. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The White House is seeking information about upcoming arms transfers to Israel, Axios reports, but US officials cited by the news outlet insist the move is unconnected to recent murmurs suggesting the administration could rethink weapons sales to Israel.

The report, quoting four US officials, says US President Joe Biden requested that the State Department and Pentagon provide lists of arms set to be shipped to Israel or up for approval.

However, officials describe the move as routine and deny it signals any intention to cut or slow down military. One official says the request was made so the White House can check the transfers against a list provided by Jerusalem of weapons being prioritized by Israel.

“The source added the White House wanted the list in order to help the State Department in prioritizing specific arms transfers and to see if there are any issues that demand White House ‘deconfliction.'”

Nonetheless, the timing of the request, the first such ask since October 7 according to Axios, raises eyebrows. Earlier Thursday, The Washington Post reported that US officials had informed Congress that over 100 arms shipments were sent to Israel in five months of war, and another report in the paper suggested that the administration was mulling slapping restrictions on military aid to ensure its weapons are not used in an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Axios also reports that Israel’s cabinet will in the coming days discuss signed assurances sought by Washington regarding the use of arms sold by the US, which could imperil weapons transfers if not provided by March 25.

Hezbollah claims rocket fire near border towns

The Hezbollah terror group takes responsibility for projectiles fired into Israel about an hour ago, after sirens sounded in a number of communities near the border east of Kiryat Shmona.

Multiple rockets were reportedly fired in the attack. There are no reports of injuries or damage. The Israel Defense Forces does not comment on the attack.

Troops arrest 34 in overnight West Bank raids

The IDF says troops nabbed 34 wanted Palestinians during overnight raids across the West Bank.

Five of the terror suspects were detained in the northern West Bank towns of Tammun and Tubas, where the IDF says troops also seized weapons and were attacked by Palestinians hurling explosive devices.

No soldiers were hurt in the raids.

Since October 7, the IDF says troops have arrested some 3,450 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,500 affiliated with Hamas.

No deaths, two injuries at Iran refinery, state media now says

At least two people were injured in an incident during a maintenance operation at the Aftab oil refinery in Iran’s Bandar Abbas, Iranian state media outlets reports, citing the operating company.

Earlier, Iranian state news agency IRNA said several people had been killed and injured due to an accident there, but cautioned there had been no official statement.

Several state media outlets later described it as a “partial incident that happened during a maintenance operation,” without giving details of what that entailed, and said there were at least two injured, with no mention of any dead.

The facility did not sustain any major damage and the injured have been deemed in stable condition after being taken to a hospital, the semi-official Fars News Agency said.

Cabinet to mull implementation of Meron findings within 30 days — Netanyahu’s office

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the government cabinet will consider a proposal to implement recommendations of a state commission of inquiry into the April 2021 crush at the Mount Meron pilgrimage site in which 45 people were killed.

Netanyahu orders Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs to present ministers with a proposal within 30 days.

The report, released yesterday, found Netanyahu personally responsible, but did not recommend sanctions against him. It did however call for Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to be banned in the future from the public security minister role he held at the time of the disaster, and recommends other officials, including police chief Kobi Shabtai, be removed.

Hamas officials leave Cairo as hostage talks appear to hit dead end, but Egypt says negotiations will resume

Troops operate in Gaza, in a handout image published by the IDF on March 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Egyptian officials say negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza have reached an impasse over Hamas’s demand for a phased process culminating in an end to the war.

A delegation from Hamas has left Cairo for consultations, but talks will resume next week, an official source tells Egypt’s Al-Qahera News state-affiliated TV channel.

Officials tell the Associated Press Hamas has agreed on the main terms of such an agreement as a first stage, but wants commitments that it will lead to an eventual, more permanent ceasefire.

Hamas has said it will not release all of the remaining hostages without a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory. It is also demanding the release of a large number of prisoners, including top terrorists serving life sentences for mass casualty attacks, in exchange for the remaining hostages.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, says Israel has “thwarted” all mediators’ efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire agreement. He tells Reuters that Israel rejects Hamas’s demands to end its offensive in the enclave, withdraw its forces, ensure freedom of entry for aid and the return of displaced people.

Israel has said it will continue fighting until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are released, and will only agree to a temporary truce. Egyptian officials say mediators are still pressing the two parties to soften their positions.

Rocket sirens sound in northern border communities

Rocket sirens are sounding in several communities near the Lebanon border on the eastern end of the Galilee.

The rocket alarms are heard on Kibbutz Dan, Sha’ar Yeshuv, and Dafna.

Hezbollah claims rocket attack on Rosh Hanikra

The Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon has taken responsibility for this morning’s attack on Rosh Hanikra.

The group claims it was shelling a military site south of the town where it says the war in Gaza is being run from.

Lapid says Yesh Atid would step in to replace coalition hardliners to secure hostage deal

Yair Lapid speaks at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv on March 7, 2024. (Lazar Berman / Times of Israel)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that he is still willing to join the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expels the far-right flank of his coalition.

“Kick out of the extremists. To get the hostages out I’ll come in and give you a security net,” he says at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv. Lapid adds that Netanyahu has received his offer, but indicates it was dismissed by the Likud leader, who he says only cares about keeping the coalition intact.

Lapid criticizes Netanyahu’s management of the war and the way the Gaza humanitarian aid effort is being run, noting that the war cabinet and larger security cabinet are working at cross purposes. The war cabinet, which is controlled by moderates, is working with the US to get aid in, but the security cabinet, which includes far-right hardliners like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, is urging civilians to block the aid convoys into Gaza, he says.

Hamas too has an interest in keeping Gazans starving, he argues.

The Yesh Atid head also pooh-poohs a reported government plan to use local clans to maintain civil control in Gaza, saying it “won’t happen and is an invitation for chaos.” He calls for Gaza to be run by “a regional coalition.”

While appearing to share Netanyahu’s skepticism regarding the Palestinian Authority taking Gaza’s reins, Lapid leaves open the possibility that it handle the task in some form, though he says it needs a ““different leadership.”

“We know they’re not Hamas and we know they know how to sweep the streets,” he says, yet adds that the PA “must prove to us, and not the other way around, that it is not part of the threat.”

Lapid avoids the term “two-state solution,” instead calling for Israel to “separate from the Palestinians… from a position of strength.”

Several reported dead in explosion at Iranian refinery

The Shahid Rajaee port facility near the Iranian coastal city of Bandar Abbas. (Iran Ports and Maritime Organization)

Several people were killed in an explosion at Iran’s Bandar Abbas refinery, the official IRNA news agency says, adding officials have not yet issued a statement on the matter.

10 rockets fired at Rosh Hanikra, IDF says; 9 shot down

The Israel Defense Forces says 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the northern community of Rosh Hanikra.

Nine of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, with the tenth hitting an open area, it says.

There are no reports of damage or injuries.

Troops are shelling the launch sites with artillery, the IDF adds.

Reports in Lebanon say that areas in Naqoura are being shelled.

The IDF also confirms that two rockets were fired from Syria at Israel overnight, hitting open areas in the Golan Heights.

Several rockets seemingly shot down after attack on northern border

Videos show what appear to be several rocket interceptions in the skies over the Western Galilee, after sirens sounded in Rosh Hanikra.

עוד מאיזור נהריה וראש הנקרה . יירוטים במרחב הצפון pic.twitter.com/CmMcOKzxfj

— כל החדשות בזמן אמת 🟢 (@Saher95755738) March 7, 2024

Reports suggest that multiple rockets were fired, with one possibly impacting inside Israel.

The city of Nahariya, some six kilometers (four miles) south of Rosh Hanikra, sends a note to residents saying that loud explosions heard overhead were of interceptions and that the city was not targeted in the apparent attack from Lebanon.

There is no immediate comments from the military.

Israel says 750 aid packages airdropped into Gaza so far

A picture shows aid parcels being airdropped over the northern Gaza Strip on March 5, 2024. A joint Jordanian, French, US and Egyptian operation airdropped aid on northern Gaza on March 5, Jordanian media reported. (AFP)

The Defense Ministry says 25 airdrop missions have been deployed over Gaza to parachute aid into the Strip since fighting began on October 7.

According to COGAT, 750 containers of relief have been dropped into the enclave by the US, UAE, Egypt, Jordan and France. Most of the drops have been in northern Gaza, where it has been hardest to deliver aid.

On Tuesday, Jordan said 43 planes had flown aid missions over the Strip, 28 of them deployed by Amman.

“We will continue working with partners to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza,” COGAT says.

Sirens ring out in northern town of Rosh Hanikra

Rocket sirens are sounding in Rosh Hanikra near the Lebanese border in the far western Galilee, Israel’s Homefront Command says.

Report: Israel threatens to launch war against Hezbollah if no deal to withdraw by March 15

A Lebanese newspaper linked to the Hezbollah terror group claims that Israel has set a March 15 deadline for a diplomatic deal pushing the Iran-backed terror group’s forces from southern Lebanon, after which it is prepared to escalate the ongoing border skirmishes into a war.

Yesterday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US special envoy to the region Amos Hochstein that Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel are bringing the country closer to a decision regarding military action in Lebanon.

Al-Akhbar quotes Western officials saying that Hochstein does not believe the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border can be halted before a deal is reached for a truce in Gaza. The paper also claims Americans think a diplomatic settlement between Beirut and Jerusalem will have to include a solution to the border disputes, in particular the Mount Dov area, known in Lebanon as the Shebaa farms, and a deployment of the Lebanese army in the south.

Katz tells diplomats to push messaging targeting UN over handling of October 7 rape report

In the wake of a UN report accusing Hamas of severe sexual violence on October 7 and afterward, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructs Israel’s diplomats to launch a public relations offensive aimed at pressuring the UN to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and to immediately convene the Security Council to debate the findings.

In a letter, Katz instructs the envoys to push messaging around the report in interviews, on social media and in meetings with decision-makers. He demands that each mission report their activities to advance these messages by March 14.

Katz says the diplomats should push the idea that “the weak response by the UN indicates to Hamas that these acts are acceptable and will not bring sanctions on the terror organization.”

Probe claims Israel shelled journalists in October, may have fired machine gun at them

A journalist's car burns after it was allegedly hit by Israeli shelling in the Alma al-Shaab border village with Israel, south Lebanon, October 13, 2023. (Hassan Ammar/AP)

An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters reporter in Lebanon in October by firing two shells at a clearly identified group of journalists and then “likely” opened fire on them with a heavy machine gun in an attack that lasted 1 minute and 45 seconds, an organization says.

A report by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, or TNO, which was contracted by Reuters to analyze evidence from the October 13 attack that killed visual journalist Issam Abdallah, finds that a tank 1.34 kilometers (0.8 miles) away in Israel fired two 120 mm rounds at the reporters.

The first shell killed Abdallah, 37, and severely wounded Agence France-Presse photographer Christina Assi, 28.

TNO says audio picked up by an Al Jazeera video camera at the scene showed the reporters also came under fire from 0.50 caliber rounds of the type used by the Browning machine guns that can be mounted on Israel’s Merkava tanks. Israeli tanks, however, are mounted with FN MAG light machine guns, which use smaller 7.62 mm caliber rounds.

In this photo provided by Reuters, Issam Abdallah, a videographer for the news agency, poses for a selfie while working in Maras, Turkey, on Feb. 11, 2023. Abdallah was killed Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, when an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon. Six other journalists were injured in the incident. (Issam Abdallah/Reuters via AP)

“It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report says. “The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machine gun] fire could not be established.”

Reuters cannot independently determine if the Israeli tank crew knew it was firing on journalists, nor whether it also shot at them with a machine gun and, if so, why.

Neither of the two surviving Reuters reporters or another AFP journalist at the scene remembered the machine gun fire. All said they were in shock at the time.

The camera of a photographer who was injured by Israeli shelling, is left on the ground at the Alma al-Shaab border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. An Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon, killing one and leaving six others injured. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The Israel Defense Forces does not respond to requests for comment about any aspect of the attack on journalists.

Asked to comment on TNO’s preliminary findings in December, the IDF said: “We don’t target journalists.”

A day after a Reuters investigation into the incident was published, it said the incident took place in an active combat zone.

Troops still raiding Hamad Town in Khan Younis, army says

Troops operate in Gaza, in a handout image published by the IDF on March 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says operations against Hamas in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis is still ongoing, with troops killing gunmen and capturing weapons over the past day.

Troops of the 7th Armored Brigade raided several Hamas sites in the neighborhood, locating a weapons manufacturing plant, explosive devices and military equipment, the IDF says.

It says the soldiers also located several tunnel shafts, and destroyed a number of Hamas offices in the area.

The Commando Brigade has continued building-to-building searches in Hamad, killing several gunmen and seizing weapons in the past day, according to the IDF.

Nearby, in the Khan Younis suburb of al-Qarara, the IDF says an airstrike was carried out against a six-man Hamas cell that was spotted entering a building by troops of the Bislamach Brigade.

In another incident, Bislamach troops directed an airstrike on an RPG-wielding operative who was spotted entering a building known to be used by Hamas, with tunnel infrastructure beneath it, the IDF says.

Meanwhile, in central Gaza, the IDF says troops of the Nahal Brigade killed some 10 gunmen over the past day, including by calling in airstrikes.

A video released by the IDF shows what the military says is an airstrike on a group of Hamas operatives moving toward Nahal troops in central Gaza, and a strike on a site belonging to the terror group elsewhere in the Strip.

According to the IDF, one strike against a cell loading a vehicle with military equipment in central Gaza was followed by secondary explosions, indicating that weapons and explosives were in the car.

Bank Hapoalim profits leap by nearly 13 percent in 2023

View of the Bank Hapoalim offices in the center of Tel Aviv. August 4, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Despite business woes stemming first from unrest around judicial overhaul plans and then the outbreak of war, Bank Hapoalim’s profits jumped by nearly 13 percent in 2023, Israel’s largest bank says.

Hapoalim reports that it netted over NIS 7.3 billion (nearly $2.1 billion at the current exchange rate) last year, up from NIS 6.5 billion ($1.8 billion) last year.

According to the bank, most of the profit was the result of higher interest rates, though it was also helped by other factors. Revenue from bank fees rose to over NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion), up over NIS 150 million ($41 million) from a year earlier.

Sweden, EU states meeting with Israel on improving aid access in Gaza

Sweden has initiated a meeting with Israel’s foreign ministry and several European Union member states as well as others “to convey the urgent need to improve humanitarian access to Gaza,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says.

“The life and health of children in Gaza must be protected,” Kristersson says on X without providing more detail.

Aid delivery in the Palestinian enclave has collapsed, with only a fraction of the food needed getting in and very little reaching the northern areas where Hamas health officials say children have started dying of malnutrition.

Report: Biden mulling moves to keep Israel from using US weapons in Rafah

The US is apparently considering taking steps to prevent Israel from using American arms on a planned offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, the Washington Post says.

Columnist David Ignatius writes that US President Joe Biden and other officials “haven’t made any decision about imposing ‘conditionality’ on U.S. weapons. But the very fact that officials seem to be debating this extreme step shows the administration’s growing concern about the crisis in Gaza.”

“If Israel launches an offensive in Rafah without adequately protecting the displaced civilian population, it may precipitate an unprecedented crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, even involving arms supplies,” former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk is quoted saying.

The column also says that the US appears to have backed off hopes for a diplomatic initiative pairing Saudi normalization with a pathway to a Palestinian state.

Ignatius, sometimes seen as a cipher for administration thinking, telegraphs deep White House frustrations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

“Behind the growing tension with Netanyahu is Biden’s feeling that Israel hasn’t been listening to U.S. warnings and advice, and that the U.S.-Israeli relationship has been a one-way street,” he writes. “The administration feels it supports Israeli interests, at considerable political cost at home and abroad, while Netanyahu isn’t responsive to American requests. Israel argues that any space between U.S. and Israeli policy only benefits Hamas. But Israel doesn’t make compromises to narrow that gap.”

Jewish Canadian lawmaker accuses own party of refusing to deal with antisemitism

Selina Robinson speaks about the challenges facing women in politics, September 7, 2022. (YouTube screenshot/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A Jewish Canadian politician is calling out members of her progressive party for refusing to stand up against antisemitism, announcing her departure from the ruling New Democratic Party caucus in the British Columbian Legislative Assembly.

“As a government we have not been standing up to antisemitism,” assembly member Selina Robinson writes in a lengthy missive announcing her decision to go independent. “If you believe that then it would appear to me that you haven’t been paying attention or you don’t know what antisemitism is or what Jew hatred looks like.”

Robinson, who was removed as a minister in BC after making remarks deemed anti-Palestinian, accuses several fellow party members of outright antsemitism and of refusing to apologize or make real amends for anti-Jewish remarks, including the party’s antiracism czar Mable Elmore; another lawmaker, Niki Sharma, who was appointed to deal with the Jewish community due to Mable’s past comments, has failed to even reach out to community leaders, she charges. A request to engage with the Jewish and Muslim communities to foster dialogue was rejected by a party adviser as “too political,” adds Robinson, who received a death threat in the wake of her January 30 remark.

She also says most members of the party, which is allied with Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the House of Commons in Ottawa, ignored her request to show solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of the October 7 massacre.

British Columbia Premier David Eby, center, lights a menorah at a Hanukkah reception at the University of British Columbia Hillel, December 18, 2023. At left is Selina Robinson. (Courtesy of CIJA)

“How eager you all are to join the few remaining Holocaust survivors as Nicholas plays Kol Nidre on the cello and we bow our heads, light candles in honour of those murdered – yet when the hordes gather and chant “from the river to the sea” – a Hamas mantra referring to their desire to destroy Israel and the Jews, you are no where to be found,” she writes.

Robinson, 60, represents the suburban Vancouver district of Coquitlam-Maillardville in the British Columbia legislature. She had already announced she would not seek re-election after over a decade in office.

In a statement, three local and national Jewish groups say they are “profoundly saddened,” by her decision to leave the party, and call on Premier David Eby to “demonstrate leadership and address antisemitism within his caucus, his government, and in British Columbia as a whole.”

Manila says two Filipinos among fatalities in Houthi ship strike

This black-and-white image released by the US military's Central Command shows the fire aboard the bulk carrier True Confidence after a missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (US Central Command via AP)

Two Filipino crew members were among those killed in a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a ship in the Gulf of Aden, the Philippine government says.

Those killed in the attack on Wednesday appear to be first deaths resulting from Houthi attacks on merchant vessels transiting the key Red Sea trade route.

“With great sadness, the Department of Migrant Workers confirms the deaths of two Filipino seafarers in the most recent attack by Houthi rebels on ships plying the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” the agency says in a statement.

“We are also informed that two other Filipino crewmen were severely injured in the attack on their ship,” it added.

Manila is liaising with the ship owners and its crewing agency “to ascertain the conditions of the rest of the ship’s crew,” the department said.

An anti-ship ballistic missile struck the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned M/V True Confidence, after which its crew reported “three fatalities, at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition, and significant damage to the ship,” the US Central Command said earlier.

China’s FM calls war in Gaza a ‘disgrace for civilization’

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi calls the war against Hamas in Gaza a “disgrace for civilization” and reiterates Beijing’s calls for an “immediate ceasefire.”

“It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilization that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped,” Wang told journalists at a press conference.

Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in October last year, after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages of all ages. Women, children, and elderly people remain in Hamas captivity as an agreement to release them remains elusive.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Xi Jinping has called for an “international peace conference” to resolve the fighting.

“No reason can justify the continuation of the conflict, and no excuse can justify being desperately killed,” Wang says.

“The international community must act urgently, making an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief an urgent moral responsibility.”

Beijing’s top diplomat also says China supports “full” United Nations membership for a Palestinian state.

“We support Palestine becoming a formal member of the United Nations,” Wang said.

“The catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be ignored,” he says.

“The long-cherished wish of the Palestinian people to establish an independent country can no longer be evaded, and the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue for generations without being corrected,” he adds.

There is no mention of Hamas’s attack or of the hostages it still holds.

US quietly approved over 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7 — report

The United States has approved and delivered on more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, US officials recently told Congress in a classified briefing, according to a Washington Post report citing unnamed officials.

According to the report, the sales included thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs and other weapons. They did not need to first be approved by Congress as the cost of each sale fell below the minimum amount that would require them to be considered, according to the report.

Speaking to the Washington Post, former Biden administration official Jeremy Konyndyk said that the “extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time” suggests that Israel would not be able to maintain its operation against Hamas in Gaza “without this level of US support.” Konyndyk is the current president of Refugees International and has called on the US to use weapons sales to pressure Israel to cease fire in Gaza.

State Department spokesman Matt Miller tells the Washington Post that the Biden administration has “followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well-informed and regularly briefs members even when formal notification is not a legal requirement.”

US officials have “engaged Congress” on arms deliveries to Israel “more than 200 times” since October, Miller says.

The report says a senior State Department official declined to provide the total number of all US weapons transferred to Israel, or their costs, since October 7, but says they include new sales and “active” Foreign Military Sales or FMSs

“These are items that are typical for any modern military, including one that is as sophisticated as Israel’s,” the official says.

Gaza aid due to sail soon from Cyprus, source says

NICOSIA – Humanitarian aid for Gaza is expected to sail from Cyprus in the coming days, a source familiar with the matter said earlier.

It was not immediately clear which country was supplying the aid, where it would land or how it would be distributed. The source said aid was being coordinated with the United Arab Emirates.

“They want the aid to be dispatched before the start of Ramadan” on Sunday, the source tells Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Yesterday, Israel’s Channel 13 reported that Israel will allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza via the sea for the first time since the October 7 and that the United Arab Emirates will finance the aid shipments, which will be sent from the Gulf state to Cyprus, where they will be subject to inspection by Israeli officials.

From there, the ships will travel to Gaza and unload on the coast, according to the report.

The US has made a renewed push for a marine humanitarian corridor to be established following last week’s deadly mass-casualty incident where dozens of Palestinians were killed trying to collect aid in northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance.

Delivering aid to Gaza has become urgent as a humanitarian crisis there deepens. Aid groups say a quarter of the population is in danger of starvation as the devastating war rages on, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said two Palestinians, aged 15 and 72, died of dehydration and malnutrition on Wednesday, raising the toll of such deaths to 20. Reuters could not verify the deaths.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was due in Cyprus late Thursday and was to visit on Friday the port of Larnaca, which has been identified as a launch point for aid shipments.

Cyprus lies 370 km (230 miles) northwest of Gaza in the Mediterranean and is the closest European Union state to the region.

US military says it conducted strikes against two unmanned aerial vehicles in Yemen

The US military says it carried out strikes against two unmanned aerial vehicles in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region.”

US Central Command did not say if the strikes were successful.

As talks stall, hopes dim for hostage release deal, truce before Ramadan — report

Hopes are dimming that an agreement to release hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 and secure a temporary truce to pause the fighting in Gaza can be reached before the start of Ramadan next week, the New York Times reports citing US and Mideast officials.

The US has been pushing hard for an agreement before the Muslim fasting month begins on March 10 and has called on Hamas to accept the terms of a framework worked out in Paris last month that would put in place a six-week pause in fighting and a release of some 40 hostages in an initial phase in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners.

As talks appear to stall given Hamas’s insistent demands for a permanent ceasefire, those hopes have diminished, officials tell the New York Times.

Officials briefed on the talks say Hamas has “backed away” from the proposed agreement in Paris and in addition to a permanent ceasefire, also demands the withdrawal of troops from the Gaza Strip, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes in the north, and “provisions for the needs of our people.”

One regional official tells the publication that the main sticking point is the demand for a permanent ceasefire during or after the three phases of the hostage releases proposed in Paris, which Israel has refused.

Talks have moved from Doha to Cairo in recent days as the negotiations appear to flounder, according to the report. Israel has not sent a delegation to the talks since Hamas has refused to provide a list of living hostages to secure the deal. The US has backed Israel’s position and has said the request is legitimate.

According to the report, the officials believe Hamas has issued new demands for a variety of reasons including a belief that drawing out the fighting into Ramadan will weaken Israel. The terror group has called for a march on the flashpoint Temple Mount site in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month, in moves the Israelis believe are designed to stir up violence.

“Hamas, according to people briefed on the talks, believes an action at the mosque will show its strength despite the monthslong Israeli military campaign in Gaza and could increase pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to end the fighting,” the report reads.

An incident last week in which dozens of Gazans were killed rushing an aid convoy and which drew international condemnation against Israel, including from the US, has also emboldened Hamas and its position in the talks, some officials believe, according to the report.

Blinken thanks Jordan for coordinating joint aid airdrop to Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi in a call today for the close partnership between the two countries “in coordinating joint US-Jordan airdrops to Gaza to provide life-saving humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.”

The US made its second airdrop of aid into Gaza yesterday in a joint operation with Jordan, Egypt, and France.

According to State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, Blinken “emphasized that it is critical significant amounts of additional humanitarian assistance be delivered” to Gaza.

Blinken and Safadi also discussed “efforts to secure an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks as part of a deal that would release hostages and surge humanitarian assistance,” Miller says.

Blinken also “underscored the need to preserve the historic status quo” at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount site and “recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s special role with respect to the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.”

3 killed in first fatal Houthi attack on Red Sea shipping, CENTCOM says

LONDON – A Houthi missile attack killed three seafarers on a Red Sea merchant ship on Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) says, the first fatalities reported since the Iran-aligned Yemeni group began strikes against shipping in one of the world’s busiest trade lanes.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, which set the Greek-owned, Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence ablaze around 50 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen’s port of Aden.

In an earlier message on X responding to the Houthi claim, Britain’s embassy wrote: “At least 2 innocent sailors have died. This was the sad but inevitable consequence of the Houthis recklessly firing missiles at international shipping. They must stop.”

The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea since November in what they say is a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Britain and the United States have been launching retaliatory strikes against the Houthis, and the confirmation of fatalities could lead to pressure for stronger military action.

CENTCOM says the Houthi strike also injured at least four crew members and caused “significant damage” to the ship. Earlier, a shipping source said four mariners had been severely burned and three were missing after the attack.

The Greek operators of the True Confidence said the vessel was drifting and on fire. They said no information was available about the status of the 20 crew and three armed guards on board, who included 15 Filipinos, four Vietnamese, two Sri Lankans, an Indian and a Nepali national.

UN to test Israeli military road to get aid to Gaza’s north

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations will assess on Thursday how it can use an Israeli military road bordering the Gaza Strip to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians in the north of the Palestinian enclave, a senior UN aid official says.

The UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine.

Jamie McGoldrick, UN aid coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, says the UN had been pushing Israel for weeks to use the Gaza border fence road and had received much more cooperation in the past week.