The writers’ group PEN America has offered an olive branch to a group of prominent authors and literary figures who withdrew from its flagship World Voices festival in protest at its perceived stance over the Israel-Gaza war.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, the organization said it wants to meet with the authors and others in a public forum to foster a better understanding of its position and discuss “sharply divergent views on questions of deep consequence”.
It says it is also making “a substantial financial contribution”, believed to be about $100,000, to the Netherlands-based PEN emergency fund for distribution to Palestinian writers in what it asserts is an “expansion of existing support”.
A lack of backing for writers in Gaza was one of the allegations made by the authors last week in a highly critical letter to the literary freedom advocacy organisation.
Al Jazeera journalist Laura Khan, reporting from the occupied West Bank, has reported a “particularly violent” night there on Wednesday into Thursday morning.
Khan writes:
We’re seeing daily overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, but on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, it was particularly violent.
The city of Tulkarem had a particularly violent night. The Israeli army raided at dawn and started to tear up infrastructure, including roads. Witnesses say it is the most brutally violent night they’ve ever had in terms of the destruction they’ve seen around them.”
She also said an Israeli drone strike in Jenin had killed four men, while in the south of Hebron soldiers had shot a man in the leg after he “tried to carry out a stabbing attack”.
Khan also writes: “In Nablus, a witness account described how one man had his phone confiscated by an Israeli soldier and was brutally beaten for an hour, mostly in his face.”
The Guardian has been unable to verify these incidents.
AFP also reports that two Palestinians were killed in an airstrike who the Israeli military said had posed a threat to its troops during an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank’s northwest early on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia pledges $40m to Unrwa as Blinken arrives in Riyadh
AFP reports that Riyadh announced, as Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia, that it would donate $40m to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which has been central to aid operations in Gaza but has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini has warned that “siege, hunger and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza”.
World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip
Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned.
Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.
More than one million people in Gaza face the risk of acute malnutrition or death, according to the report. Photograph: Hatem Ali/AP
The new data from the Bank came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel to give immediate and unconditional access to Gaza for aid via land.
“I call on the Israeli authorities to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian routes throughout Gaza,” he said before a meeting with the European Commission’s president in Brussels.
The Bank’s regular update found that of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, there were 1.1 million in the highest risk category – people in catastrophe – which meant risk of acute malnutrition or death. A further 854,000 (38%) were in the next category down – people in emergency – where immediate action was needed to save lives. The remaining 12% were in the third category: people in crisis. Nobody in Gaza was placed in the bottom two categories – people stressed or people in food security.
“Household surveys reveal alarming trends, with virtually all households skipping meals daily and a significant portion of children under two suffering from acute malnutrition,” the report said.
Israeli diplomats pre-emptively attack findings of Unrwa inquiries
Patrick Wintour
Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.
Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January after the Israeli allegations. Parallel to the OIOS inquiry, a broader review of Unrwa’s activities and neutrality is under way, led by a former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and supported by three Nordic research organisations.
The Colonna review was commissioned by Guterres in January, before the Israeli allegations were made. The review group, which presented its interim findings on Tuesday, found that “Unrwa has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principle of neutrality.”
But the UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino said investigators had “also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed”.
You can read the full piece by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here:
Mediators met for a third day of talks in Qatar on Wednesday in a renewed effort to secure a ceasefire but with little indication of an imminent agreement, reports AFP.
The plan being discussed in Qatar would temporarily halt the fighting as Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of relief supplies to Gaza is stepped up.
According to AFP, senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Israel’s response to the group’s latest proposal was “largely negative … and constitutes a step backwards”.
The latest fighting has included an Israeli assault on GazaCity’s al-Shifa hospital, a vast complex crowded with patients and people seeking refuge, where Israel says Palestinian militants are holed up.
The Israeli army said “over 300 suspects” had been apprehended in the hospital raid that began on Monday, including “dozens of senior terrorists and those with key positions”.
Israel said its forces have “killed approximately 90 terrorists” since the start of the raid, and army chief Herzi Halevi said the objective was “not to allow such a place to be controlled” by Hamas.
Hamas condemned Israeli “crimes” at al-Shifa “for the third day in a row, the executions of dozens of displaced persons, patients and staff”.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 70 people had been killed in Gaza overnight.
50 Palestinian gunmen killed in fighting at Gaza's Shifa hospital, say Israeli army
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed more than 50 Palestinian gunmen over the past day in fighting around the Gaza Strip’s al-Shifa hospital, reports Reuters.
The military said it was continuing with its “precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital.”
“Over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire, and terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were located. Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital,” it said.
US unveils draft UN resolution seeking immediate Gaza ceasefire
The US has circulated a draft UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in the GazaStrip, secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
The diplomat made his announcement while on a tour of the Middle East that will include a stop in Israel, reports the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Key Israel backer the US has vetoed previous UN security council votes on the nearly six-month war, objecting as recently as in February to the use of the term “immediate” in a draft submitted by Algeria.
In recent weeks, however, Washington has upped the pressure on its ally, while insisting that Hamas militants must immediately release the hostages seized by militants during its 7 October attacks on Israel.
“Well, in fact, we actually have a resolution that we put forward right now that’s before the UN security council that does call for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages, and we hope very much that countries will support that,” Blinken said in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan (R) met US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Jeddah, on Wednesday. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AFP/Getty Images
“I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal,” he told Saudi media outlet Al Hadath on Wednesday.
“Of course, we stand with Israel and its right to defend itself … but at the same time, it’s imperative that the civilians who are in harm’s way and who are suffering so terribly – that we focus on them, that we make them a priority, protecting the civilians, getting them humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said.
US officials had been negotiating an alternative text since blocking an Algerian draft resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza at the end of February.
That alternative, focusing on support for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of hostages, had little chance winning approval, according to diplomatic sources.
A new version, seen by AFP, stresses “the need for an immediate and durable ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, enable the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, and alleviate suffering … in conjunction with the release of hostages still held”. No vote has yet been scheduled on this text.
Blinken met Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and then held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman soon after landing in the kingdom on Wednesday on the first leg of a regional tour that will include Egypt on Thursday and then Israel on Friday.
It has gone 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
The US has circulated a draft UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages” in Gaza, secretary of state Antony Blinken has said.
“We hope very much that countries will support that,” Blinken said while in Saudi Arabia for talks on the war between Israel and Hamas.
The US, Israel’s main backer, had previously used its UN security council veto to block the world body from calling for an immediate ceasefire.
More on that in a moment, but first here is a summary of the other main events:
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu again stated on Wednesday Israel’s intention to launch a ground offensive against Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, but cautioned that it will “take some time” for Israel’s forces to be ready. In a video statement Netanyahu said that he will soon approve a plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from fighting areas after having green-lit the military’s operational plans for Rafah.
Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan said on Wednesday that the Israeli response to the group’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over. In a press conference in Beirut he claimed that Israel had retracted previous negotiation approvals in the latest talks.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived on Wednesday in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for talks. His sixth visit to the region since 7 October will also include Egypt, and he is expected in Israel on Friday.
Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency(Unrwa)in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general. Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.
Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned. Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.
A delegation of US and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it has recorded over 400 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 12 March 2024.
