- Israeli air attacks on two houses and an apartment in Rafah have killed at least 14 people and injured several more, Wafa news agency reports.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for immediate action to prevent famine in northern Gaza, a disaster that he described as “entirely” man-made.
- Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul has been freed after 12 hours in Israeli custody. Israeli forces beat him up severely when they detained him during a raid on Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.
- Al-Ghoul described being forced to lie on his stomach for 12 hours blindfolded with hands tied, as Israeli forces opened fire near detainees to cause fear.
- Israeli officials have told US and Israeli media that indirect talks with Hamas have begun in Qatar.
- At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed and 73,792 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attack stands at 1,139 with dozens taken captive.
- More than a million people in Gaza face risk of acute malnutrition: UN officialBeth Bechdol, deputy director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, says the food security situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating.Food security in the enclave “has deteriorated at a pace and a frequency that we have never seen before”, Bechdol told Al Jazeera.According to Bechdol, there are three crisis levels of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).Bechdol said 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza – about half of the population – are currently categorised at level five which is classified as a catastrophe, possibly leading to famine.“This means that households at this particular level have an extreme lack of food and unable to meet most of their basic needs,” Bechdol said. “People are starving and they face a significantly increased risk of acute malnutrition and ultimately death.”Click here to share on social media
- As lawmakers across much of the West debate the extent to which Israel may be hampering the passage of life-saving aid into Gaza, the weapons exports that underpin much of Israel’s war on the besieged enclave continue to flow.Since the war began, the volume of weapons entering Israel has increased as huge volumes of ordinance are used to flatten areas of Gaza as well as kill, maim and displace its civilian population.“On the one hand, we have this dire humanitarian need, on the other hand, we have this continual supply of weapons to the country Israel, [which is] creating that need,” Akshaya Kumar, director of crisis advocacy at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said.While “Western states have recently been going to great lengths to have Israel recognise its role in creating the suffering we’re seeing in Gaza”, she said, “we’re not seeing any corresponding reduction in the flow of weapons from states such as the US, Germany and beyond”.
- Far-right Israeli ministers threaten to resign if Palestinian prisoners releasedIsrael’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have privately said they will abandon the government if Israel frees “dozens of terrorists with blood on their hands”, reports Israel’s Channel 13.The threat comes as an Israeli delegation is reportedly in Qatar to hammer out a possible ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange deal with Hamas.Last week, Hamas proposed a three-stage ceasefire deal that would start with the release of 40 Israelis held captive, in exchange for 700-1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences hand-picked by Hamas.Click here to share on social media
- Reporting from Washington, DCThe organisers of Listen to Michigan – an effort to protest against Joe Biden’s policy towards Israel’s war in Gaza – have a message for the United States president: The conflict is not a “niche” issue for only some segments of the political left.Listen to Michigan emerged earlier this year as a grassroots movement focused on the state’s primary. It called on voters to cast “uncommitted votes” instead of backing Biden’s re-election effort, in an attempt to signal displeasure over the president’s stance on the war.But that movement has kicked off a domino effect in other key states, with similar “protest votes” emerging. On Monday, Listen to Michigan unveiled plans to take its campaign to the national stage.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/19/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-holds-al-jazeera-reporter-for-12-hours
