Police have been accused of suppressing legitimate protest after a woman was arrested for chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and given bail conditions banning her from Manchester city centre or from being in a group of more than three people.
Dutch police said on Thursday they had arrested someone suspected of throwing a burning object at Israel’s embassy in The Hague, which is under heavy security amid the war in Gaza.
“Around 10:50 am someone threw a burning object … towards the Israeli embassy,” police said, reports AFP. “We have arrested one suspect. No one was injured. We are investigating and there is a large barrier around the embassy.”
Security has been stepped up around Israeli embassies across the world as the country’s military presses an offensive in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attacks.
“It is unacceptable that such an attack can take place in the Netherlands. Fortunately, no injuries were reported,” said the embassy in a statement on X.
It added: “This shows the dangerous consequences of the worrying trend of increasing hatred and incitement. This hatred cannot be tolerated.”
In February, there was a bomb scare at the official residence of the Israeli ambassador in The Hague. Police cordoned off the area but found no explosives, say AFP.
At the time, authorities in The Hague had imposed emergency security measures around the Israeli embassy in response to an unspecified threat.
In January, the bomb squad in Sweden destroyed a “live” device at Israel’s embassy in Stockholm, something authorities described as a potential “terrorist crime”.
The CIDI association, which fights against antisemitism in the Netherlands, described Thursday’s attack as “another step in a sliding scale of hatred and violence against the Jewish state”.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has arrived in Cairo for ministerial meetings regarding developments in Palestinian territories, Reuters reports the state news agency said on Thursday.
Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan attends a meeting with Arab representatives in Cairo, Egypt. Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
US has called for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza with draft UN resolution
Peter Beaumont
The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
After the declaration of imminent famine in parts of Gaza by a UN panel of experts earlier this week, the Biden administration has been ramping up efforts to call at least a temporary halt to the fighting, on top of warning Israel against launching a ground attack against Rafah in southern Gaza.
Details of the new draft resolution were revealed as the UN released an analysis of satellite imagery showing that 35% of buildings in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed during Israel’s offensive, which has claimed almost 32,000 Palestinian lives.
The US has blocked previous attempts to pass a ceasefire resolution, and the new draft marks a significant step in its approach to the conflict.
Details of the resolution, which calls for “an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza, were disclosed by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as he toured the Middle East.
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza sent to us over the news wires.
A Palestinian boy inspects a garbage container as he looks for cartons to make a fire in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Palestinians transport sacks of flour distributed by the UN in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, on 21 March. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Smoke continues to rise during an Israeli raid at the al-Shifa hospital and the area around it, 21 March. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, increasing to nine the number of Palestinians killed in the territory over 24 hours, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Security sources told Wafa that one of those killed was Mohammad Salhiya, 18, from Al-Am’ari camp. He was killed at dawn.
South of Bethlehem, Israeli forces shot dead a 63-year-old Palestinian near El’azar.
Reuters reports the Israeli military said soldiers had fired shots towards “a Palestinian who aroused their suspicion at the El’azar junction”.
“A hit was identified and he was later pronounced dead,” it said, adding that military police had opened an investigation into the incident.
The Times of Israel reported that the 63-year-old man had his hands in the air when he was shot.
25 Palestinians, including two children, were detained overnight by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, Wafa said, citing the Palestinian prisoner society. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Large crowds have gathered in Jenin for the funerals of three people killed in a vehicle in an Israeli drone strike last night. Palestinians in Jenin have called for today to be a strike in protest.
Palestinian men surround a destroyed car after an Israeli airstrike on Jenin in the occupied West Bank last night. Photograph: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
Israeli forces also killed four Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm overnight.
We have learned more about the second aid mission expected to take place along the newly inaugurated sea corridor connecting Cyprus with Gaza.
A second ship, The Jennifer, capable of transporting up to 600 tons, will ply the route as soon as weather conditions allow.
“It will go either at the end of this week or the beginning of next due to weather conditions,” Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian. “Currently there are about 240 tons [of aid] on board but loading will continue,” he said.
It is expected that about 300 tons of food, fresh water and medicines will ultimately be loaded on to The Jennifer because the vessel will once again tow the barge that made the maiden voyage to Gaza last week.
The barge, which will also be carrying aid, is moored in the port of Larnaca, the distribution point for the aid initiative.
“They had to bring the barge back [to Larnaca] for repairs,” Gotsis explained. “It can only sail in winds of up to five Beaufort and when waters are calm. When it returns [to Gaza] it will act as an intermediate platform before a [permanent] pier is constructed. Pallets will be unloaded on to the barge before they are transferred to the shore on smaller boats.”
In a letter made public yesterday to the Mediterranean island’s president Nikos Christodoulides, president Joe Biden reiterated that he had instructed the US military to establish a temporary dock on the coast of Gaza to facilitate and enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid intended for its civilian population.
The pier’s construction, however, is not expected to be completed for several months yet.
Thursday’s meeting in Larnaca of 35 senior officials, including the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates which has helped coordinate the aid mission, is expected to be instrumental in deciding how aid deliveries to the besieged territory can be both accelerated and augmented via the maritime route.
Israel determined to take Rafah even if it 'leads to potential breach with the US', says senior Israeli official
Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the US, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, describing the city packed with refugees as a final Hamas bastion harbouring a quarter of the group’s fighters, reports Reuters.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to ensure a civilian evacuation and humanitarian aid – measures that top Israeli aides are due to discuss in the White House in the coming days, at the behest of US president Joe Biden.
“We’re quite confident that we can do this in a way that would be effective – not only militarily, but also on the humanitarian side. And they have less confidence that we can do it,” one of those Israeli envoys, strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, said on the Call Me Back with Dan Senor podcast.
According to Reuters, Dermer, who is a former ambassador to the US, said Israel would hear out US ideas for Rafah, but the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt would be taken whether or not the allies reach agreement:
It will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone. Even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the US, we’re going to fight until the battle’s won … and that’s why the determination to take them [Hamas] out is so strong, even if it leads to a potential breach with the US.”
Dermer said there were four intact Hamas battalions in Rafah, bolstered by fighters who had retreated from other parts of Gaza, amounting to 25% of the group’s prewar strength.
“We’re not going to leave a quarter of them in place,” he said. “We’re going into Rafah because we have to … And I think what people don’t understand is that 7 October is an existential moment for Israel.”
Hamas says those killed at al-Shifa hospital by Israeli military were patients and displaced people
Near al-Shifa hospital, residents have told Reuters via a chat app that the Israeli army had blown up houses close by as buildings in the hospital complex burned.
Rabah, a father of five, said the area was a war zone, with people trapped inside their houses amid clashes in the streets. “Israel sent tanks back into the heart of Gaza City to destroy what is left of its homes and roads. All of that is happening in the sight of the one-eyed world,” he told Reuters.
Smoke rises during an Israeli raid at al-Shifa hospital and the area around it on Thursday. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Israel said its troops had killed more than 50 Hamas gunmen over the previous day, taking the number of fighters killed around the hospital to 140, along with two Israeli soldiers.
Hamas has denied that the hospital harboured militants and said those killed were injured patients and displaced people.
Israel said it had located “terrorist” infrastructure and weapons in and around the facility, showing images of AK-47 automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other artillery, reports Reuters.
Military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said “many Hamas terrorists – operatives and senior ones” had been hiding in the hospital along with Islamic Jihad militants.
“When we entered the hospital, we were finding terrorists fighting against us here in this area,” he said.
According to Reuters, video footage released by Hamas showed its militants outside the al-Shifa compound, carrying weapons and firing on Israeli tanks in streets reduced to rubble. The position of the buildings and outline matched satellite imagery checked by Reuters, the news agency said.
