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Today’s The Long Read is on Hamas. Joshua Leifer writes: “How Israeli, Palestinian and US political actors understand Hamas is not merely a theoretical question – it will determine what kind of agreement can be reached to end the current war, and what the future of Gaza will look like.”
You can read the full piece here:
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire for at least six weeks and the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken is in Egypt after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier, as part of his latest Middle East tour. He also discussed with Sisi the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel, reports Reuters.
A merchant vessel reported shots from a skiff approximately 109 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Nishtun, British security firm Ambrey said on Thursday, reports Reuters.
Four armed people on a skiff approached the vessel and reportedly shot at the merchant vessel, and a private armed security team returned fire, Ambrey added.
The vessel reportedly increased speed and was no longer under threat by the skiff, with no damage or injuries reported, Ambrey said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency reported the same incident on Thursday.
UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 056 SUSPICIOUS APPROACHhttps://t.co/auxAKdReZU#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/48AukSvvGc
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) March 21, 2024
Yemen’s Houthis have threatened to expand their operations against shipping to the Indian Ocean region.
Somali pirates also operate in the Indian Ocean region, taking advantage of the distraction provided by Houthi strikes to the north, with more than 20 attempted hijackings since November, according to five industry representatives say Reuters.
Satellite images analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) show that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, reports Reuters.
The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has released an updated assessment of the damage inflicted on buildings in the Gaza Strip.
— UNOSAT (@UNOSAT) March 21, 2024
35% of Gaza Strip Structures were damaged since the outburst of the conflict.
Read our latest press release: https://t.co/t33jLBJJ4Y pic.twitter.com/1lvR4Rw5Bz
In its assessment, UNOSAT used high-resolution satellite images collected on 29 February and compared them with images taken before and after the start of the latest conflict. It found that 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip – 88,868 structures – had been damaged or destroyed.
Among these, it identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.
This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged structures compared to the previous assessment it did based on images taken in January that showed 30% of all buildings had been damaged or destroyed, UNOSAT said.
“The governorates of Khan Younis and Gaza have experienced the most significant rise in damage, with Khan Younis seeing 12,279 additional damaged structures and Gaza experiencing 2,010,” UNOSAT said. Khan Younis City has been hit “particularly hard”, it said, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.
Officials from 36 countries and UN agencies gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to discuss how to expedite aid to Palestinians in Gaza via a sea route launched last week.
According to Reuters, Thursday’s gathering is being attended by Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, as well as Curtis Ried, chief of staff of the US national security council.
As famine looms over Gaza, agencies are increasingly looking for alternative routes to get aid in other than land crossings. But lack of infrastructure is an issue; the World Central Kitchen which dispatched aid from Cyprus last week made a landing jetty out of rubble, while the US has also announced plans to create a floating pier.
Under an agreement hammered out with Israel, cargoes can undergo security inspections in Cyprus by a team including Israel, eliminating the need for screenings at its final offloading point to remove potential hold-ups in aid deliveries, reports Reuters.
One vessel left Cyprus last week and distributed aid in Gaza, while another two are expected to depart in coming days, subject to weather conditions.
“We are discussing how we can max up operational capacity both in terms of departure and means of transport and also in relation to the reception and distribution methodology,” said Constantinos Kombos, Cyprus’s foreign minister.
Delegates would also discuss the creation of a fund to coordinate operational activities of the initiative, Kombos said, although he clarified it was not a donor’s conference, say Reuters.
Asked how many vessels could be departing Cyprus with aid once the initiative is at full operational capacity, Kombos said “as many as possible”.
“We have to remember there are limitations in terms of the reception and distribution and the whole point is not to just stockpile aid here but about a quick turnaround so we are as efficient as possible.”
EU leaders have gathered today in Brussels for a two-day meeting during which they will discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the UN secretary general António Guterres will join the leaders at the start of their two-day meeting, in part to encourage some member countries to resume funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency (Unrwa), the main provider of aid in Gaza.
Israeli allegations that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 Gaza staff members participated in the 7 October Hamas attacks in southern Israel, resulted in major donors to the UN agency suspending their funding. AFP report that more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $450m (€413m/£353m), almost half its budget for 2024.
Early this month, the European Commission said it would pay €50m ($54m/£42m) to the agency after it agreed to allow EU-appointed experts to audit the way it screens staff to identify extremists. Germany has not resumed funding.
The Israel-Hamas war has driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and UN officials say a quarter of the population is starving. The agency is the main supplier of food, water and shelter but is on the brink of financial collapse.
Concern is also mounting about an imminent Israeli ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt. It’s a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel can’t achieve its goal of “total victory” against Hamas without going into Rafah.
In a draft of their summit statement, seen by the AP, the leaders are set to underline that such an operation “would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
The death toll rose to four on Thursday in an Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.
“Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nur Shams camp,” the group said on X, adding his death brought the toll to four.
Two of the four Palestinians were killed by an airstrike and two by live bullets, the Red Crescent said.
🚨Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Nour Shams camp, Tulkarem. This brings the total number of martyrs to 4 since the Israeli occupation forces raided the camp yesterday.…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 21, 2024
Israeli forces involved in the operation withdrew from the camp in the morning, AFP journalists reported. The Israeli army told AFP it was checking the death toll.
The military told AFP on Thursday that it had been carrying out an operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, which adjoins the town of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.
“During the operation, an aircraft struck two terrorists who posed an immediate threat to the forces,” the Israeli army said.
In total, eight Palestinians were killed in less than 24 hours in the West Bank, reports AFP.
Three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, were killed late on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a car in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in the northern West Bank.
One Palestinian was killed by gunfire in the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.
According to the Palestinian Authority, more than 430 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the war began.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
More than 140 militants have been killed in four days of fighting in and around Gaza’s largest hospital, where the Israeli army’s operation is still under way, the military said on Thursday reports AFP.
Israel launched a raid on al-Shifa medical centre on Monday, targeting what it said were senior Hamas militants with tank fire and airstrikes.
Combat has raged for days in and around the sprawling hospital complex crowded with patients and displaced people. A previous raid on the complex in November triggered international outrage.
“Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital,” the army said, referring to fighting since Monday.
The military added that it was “continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital area”, and that “over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire”.
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 65 Palestinians were killed and 92 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.