Aid boat readied for starving Gaza as Israeli strikes kill more people with start of Ramadan

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected US President Joe Biden's comment that Israel's approach to the war in Gaza was "hurting Israel more than helping Israel".

"If he meant by that that I'm pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he's wrong on both counts," Netanyahu said in an interview with Politico.

Hundreds of members of the Jewish community and their supporters blew ram's horn shofars and whistles in London on Sunday in a call to free Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.

The chorus of horn blows at Abbey Road in central London lasted for 1.55 minutes, marking the 155 days the hostages have been in captivity.

Organisers said the shofar chorus was to show solidarity with the hostages.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz said on Sunday the international community must assume its responsibilities to halt the "brutal crimes" against Palestinians in Gaza.

In a speech read on his behalf by Saudi Minister of Media Salman al-Dosari to mark the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the King also said the international community must help provide safe humanitarian passages in the enclave.

Algeria and Sierra Leone said they will continue to coordinate at the UN Security Council over efforts to end the Gaza war.

The two African nations currently hold non-permanent seats at the UN body.

Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Musa Timothy Kabba was on a visit to Algeria on Sunday, where he stressed that the two countries "stand together to condemn what is happening in the Gaza Strip."

He reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli army announced the death of a senior ranking soldier on Saturday.

Sergeant First Class Michael Gal of the Bislamach Brigade’s 450th Battalion died during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said.

This raises the number of Israeli soldiers killed since their ground invasion of Gaza to 249.

Egypt was in contact with senior Hamas and Israeli figures as well as other mediators on Sunday in an effort to restart negotiations for a truce in the Gaza Strip during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Monday or Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources said.

Egypt's contacts with Hamas and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad on Sunday were carried out under a mandate from the Egyptian presidency in an effort to bring the two sides' divergent positions together, the sources said, without providing further details.

The Mossad said on Saturday that efforts to secure a deal were ongoing, despite dimming hopes for securing a truce before Ramadan starts.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has renewed its calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in a post on X, saying that while it continues to deliver crucial aid to the enclave, it "cannot meet the needs of all people without safe and unimpeded access."

In #Gaza📍@UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response.

Our teams manage warehouses & continue to deliver food, water, hygiene kits & other critical humanitarian aid.

But we cannot meet the needs of people without safe & unimpeded access across #GazaStrip. Ceasefire NOW pic.twitter.com/mLbliC0eb2

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 10, 2024

About 75% of Jewish Israelis support an invasion of the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, in which more than half of the enclave's 2.3 million inhabitants are crammed, according to a survey conducted by The Israel Democracy Institute.

The United States and Jordan carried out a new airdrop of humanitarian aid to Gaza's Palestinians on Sunday, parachuting in more than 11,500 meals, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military's Central Command said that the latest airdrop took place over northern Gaza and included rice, flour, pasta, and canned food. The United States has dropped about 135,000 meals in airdrops this month, according to Pentagon data.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is attending the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday amid pro-Palestinian protests demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Protesters were chanting "Never again is now" and "Ceasefire now" at a square close to the museum, while holding Palestinian flags and signs that said "Jews against genocide" and "The grandchild of a holocaust survivor says: Stop Gaza Holocaust".

Strong police force enclosing road to synagogue for protestors. But protest is non violent and ongoing. King Willem-Alexander just arrived. Isaac Herzog is already inside.

©️iAnnet #Holocaustmuseum #Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/CzDxRiiUYa

— iAnnet 🛎️🦋💛 (@iAnnetnl) March 10, 2024

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Sunday said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes killed a family of four in southern Lebanon Saturday night.

Hezbollah said it had launched "dozens of katyusha-type rockets" in the morning on the Israeli settlement of Meron, eight kilometres (five miles) from the border.

Meron is home to a major air control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the start of the year.

Hezbollah said it had acted "in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians," particularly the targeting of the home of a fighter in Kherbet Selm the day before.

"Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted," the Israeli army said on Sunday.

مشاهد توثق محاولة القبة الحديدية اعتراض صواريخ أطلقت من لبنان باتجاه الجليل الأعلى وجبل الجرمق شمالي إسرائيل

وقالت إذاعة الجيش الإسرائيلي إنه تم إطلاق نحو 30 صاروخا على جبل ميرون تم اعتراض بعض الصواريخ وسقط بعضها في مناطق مفتوحة pic.twitter.com/bW225Y6qMA

— Arab-Military (@ashrafnsier) March 10, 2024

An Israeli airstrike killed a family of four and injured nine other people in the south Lebanon village of Khirbet Selm on Saturday evening.

The family had escaped their hometown on the border with Israel, Blida, for safety.

Videos of the rubble of the house which was targeted by the Israeli strike were widely shared on social media.

Hezbollah on Sunday said it responded to the massacre by striking the Israeli settlement of Meron with rockets.

معلومات عن ٤ شـ هداء من عائلة واحدة من النازحين من القرى الحدودية في الغارة على خربة سلم pic.twitter.com/novG75kw08

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) March 9, 2024

Sweden said Saturday that it would resume funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars of support in response to Israeli allegations against the organisation.

Sweden's reversal came as a ship bearing tons of humanitarian aid was preparing to leave Cyprus for Gaza after international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the besieged territory facing widespread hunger after five months of war .

At least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed and 72,654 have been wounded since October 7 in Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip, the enclave's health ministry said on Sunday.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an MSNBC interview on Saturday that Israel’s threatened invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would be his "red line" for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but then immediately backtracked, saying there was no red line and "I’m never going to leave Israel."

In a somewhat contradictory exchange with his interviewer, Biden said "they cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after" Hamas fighters.

Asked whether an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a red line for him with Netanyahu, Biden said: "It is a red line but I'm never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there's no red line (in which) I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them."

“The defense of Israel is still critical,” President Joe Biden tells Jonathan Capehart. “But there's red lines that if he crosses…cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.” pic.twitter.com/0SAPJySAYS

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 9, 2024

US President Joe Biden said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war in Gaza was "hurting Israel more than helping Israel," during an interview with MSNBC broadcast Saturday.

Netanyahu "has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas," Biden said, but added that "he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken."