Gaza war: Dozens killed in overnight strikes in Nuseirat, Rafah as first aid ship arrives

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Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched five attacks on Israeli positions with latest taking place at 3:40pm local time (13:40 GMT) when the group fired rockets at sites in Kfarchouba.

The group earlier attacked the Ramim barracks of the Israeli military near the Lebanon-Israel border with two Burkan missiles.

In the shadow of the war raging in Gaza, record numbers of Palestinian detainees are filling Israeli prisons, where they face "systemic abuse" and torture, rights advocates warn, calling for international action.

Members of several Israeli NGOs travelled to Geneva this week to raise concerns before the United Nations about a major "crisis" inside the country's prisons.

"We are extremely, extremely concerned," said Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).

"What we're looking at is a crisis," she told AFP.

She said nine people had allegedly died behind bars since October 7, according to Israeli sources.

And "there are almost 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody right now... a 200-percent increase from any normal year".

A second ship loaded with aid for Gaza could depart as early as Saturday, Cyprus said, as the first vessel returned from the war-ravaged territory after successfully delivering its cargo.

The Jennifer was set "to depart for Gaza today or tomorrow," foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told state radio.

The maritime aid corridor from Cyprus is meant to at least partly address stark shortages in Gaza after more than five months of war, as UN agencies warn of looming famine.

Earlier on Saturday, the US charity World Central Kitchen said its team had finished unloading food and other desperately needed supplies from the barge towed by Spanish aid vessel Open Arms, which left Cyprus on Tuesday in a trial run for the aid corridor.

Israeli artillery shelling has hit southern Lebanon’s Jebbayn area, causing severe damage in a residential neighbourhood, said Lebanon’s NNA news agency.

The agency also said the towns of Markaba and Wazzani were targeted by artillery shelling.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Belgium PM Alexander De Croo said that Israel urgently needs to provide more humanitarian access to Gaza, and has accused Tel Aviv of carrying out "tactics of starvation", calling them inadmissible.

De Croo stressed that Belgium continues to support UNRWA, calling it "the backbone" of aid to the people of Gaza.

Israel urgently needs to provide more humanitarian access to Gaza.

Tactics of starvation are inadmissible.

Belgium continues to support @UNRWA

It is the backbone of aid to the people in #Gaza

We expressed condolences to @UNLazzarini for over 160 staff who have been killed. pic.twitter.com/SBLDfTKtC1

— Alexander De Croo 🇧🇪🇪🇺 (@alexanderdecroo) March 16, 2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel on Saturday to allow humanitarian aid access to Gaza on a larger scale, ahead of a two-day trip to the Middle East.

Scholz will travel to the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba on Saturday to meet on Sunday with Jordan's King Abdullah before flying on to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"It is necessary for aid to reach Gaza on a larger scale now. That will be a topic that I also have to talk about," Scholz told journalists ahead of his trip.

He also voiced concern about Israel's planned offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half the Palestinian's enclave's population of 2.3 million have taken shelter.

"There is a danger that a comprehensive offensive in Rafah will result in many terrible civilian casualties, which must be strictly prohibited," he added.

Germany's air force said it dropped pallets with four tons of relief goods by air into the enclave on Saturday.

The head of Israeli intelligence is expected to lead ceasefire talks with mediators which resume in Qatar on Sunday in direct response to a new proposal from Hamas, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Saturday.

The talks between Mossad head David Barnea, Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials will focus on remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas including over prisoner releases and humanitarian aid, the source said.

Israel had said on Friday it would be sending a delegation to Doha, but did not spell out when it would do so or who would take part. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene the security cabinet before the talks.

US and Jordanian aircraft on Saturday dropped food supplies to Palestinian civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip in a joint humanitarian aid operation, US Central Command said in a statement.

The airdrops by a US Air Force C-130 aircraft and a Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 aircraft came as the main UN agency working in the enclave said that one in three children under age two is acutely malnourished. It warned of looming famine.

US Central Command called the airdrops "part of a sustained effort and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries."

A staff member of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity has described the situation in northern Gaza as catastrophic, including the lack of food and medical supplies.

"The current situation in Gaza is catastrophic and words can’t describe it," MSF nurse Loay Harb said, according to a post published by the organisation on X.

"We don't have electricity, water or connectivity. This has created a lot of instability for people here," he said.

“The current situation in Gaza is catastrophic and words can’t describe it.”

In rare contact with one of our staff members in northern #Gaza, MSF nurse Loay Harb describes the situation there, including the lack of food and the medical support he provides where he can. pic.twitter.com/7QPldoFavu

— MSF International (@MSF) March 16, 2024

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man the occupied West Bank on Saturday who they say opened fire at an illegal Israeli settlement, the military said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

Violence in the West Bank has risen since the war in Gaza began, almost six months ago, with stepped-up Israeli raids.

The absence of a breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire negotiations has added to fears that violence in the region will further flare during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which began this week.

Stalled talks aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are expected to restart in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials.

The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders joined the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week , but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.

One in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main UN agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday.

"Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post.

Hospitals in Gaza have reported some children dying of malnutrition and dehydration.

The international food insecurity watchdog, the IPC, is expected to report soon on the extent of the hunger crisis in Gaza after saying in December there was a risk of famine in the projection period through May.

For the IPC to declare famine, at least 20% of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 31,553 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war waged by Israel in the enclave.

The latest toll includes at least 63 deaths in the previous 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,546 people have been wounded in Gaza since October 7.

A US charity said Saturday its team in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip had finished unloading the first maritime aid shipment to reach the besieged territory.

"All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," World Central Kitchen said in a statement, noting that the aid was "almost 200 tonnes of food".

The group is preparing a second boat of 240 tonnes of food to set sail from Cyprus, the starting point of a new maritime aid route across the eastern Mediterranean.

The humanitarian effort is intended to mitigate food shortages that have prompted UN famine warnings in Gaza from the United Nations and aid workers.

"That shipment includes pallets of canned goods and bulk product including beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil and salt," World Central Kitchen said.

The second shipment would also include a forklift and a crane to assist with deliveries, it added.

The Israeli military claims that strikes which targeted the Nuseirat camp killed at least 15 Hamas fighters, including a sniper squad commander, according to the Israeli military’s latest war update. Israeli troops killed 10 other fighters elsewhere in central Gaza, the statement claimed.

Israeli forces have arrested two Palestinian men from the town of Bani Naim, east of Hebron, on Saturday.

Security sources reported to the Palestinian news agency Wafa that the army stormed the town at dawn, and arrested Mahmoud Idaisat and Tariq Khaled Muhammad, after raiding and searching their homes, and tampering with their contents.

The same sources added that Israeli forces raided and searched a number of homes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has said that the only way to protect civilians in Gaza is through a ceasefire, in a new statement on Saturday.

The Ministry further called for the need to ensure the protection of civilians and the entry of aid to the Gaza in a sustainable manner.

The Foreign Ministry urged PM Benjamin Netanyahu to stop using civilian lives in the territory as "a card for blackmail".