Rafah bombing intensifies despite ceasefire call
- Attacks continue and the situation on the ground remains dire despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan.
- Hamas says Israel is “losing political cover and protection even in the Security Council” and “the US is unable to impose its will on the international community”.
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Little change in Gaza aid volume: UNRWA
The UNRWA says there has been no significant change in the influx of supplies to Gaza or improvement in access to the north, where famine is the worst.
It said over the first 25 days of March, an average of 155 aid trucks reached Gaza daily via land crossings, far below the crossings’ capacity of 500.
The UNRWA added that the number of displaced people in Gaza has now climbed to 1.7 million – 75 percent of the enclave’s population – with the majority of them forcibly displaced multiple times.
Lebanon condemns Israeli strike on emergency health centre
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has condemned an early morning air strike conducted by Israel on an emergency health centre that killed what it said were seven paramedics in the southern town of al-Habbariyeh.
“These unacceptable attacks violate international laws and norms, especially the Geneva Convention, which stresses the neutrality of health centres and health workers,” it said, adding that Israel’s continued attacks on health infrastructure would not be “overlooked”.
Rescuers recover victims of Bureij attack
Emergency medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have rushed to the scene of an Israeli attack on Bureij camp in central Gaza, where at least two people were killed and many injured.
PRCS says its rescuers have retrieved the body of one person and transported three people who were wounded to receive treatment.
What you need to know about the strikes between Israel and Hezbollah
- The Israeli military said about 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel this morning.
- Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches saying they were in response to an Israeli air strike on a paramedic centre in southern Lebanon overnight. Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said a 25-year-old man was killed and two others lightly injured in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona.
- The Israeli attack on the paramedic centre in the village of al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon killed seven people in the early morning hours. The Emergency and Relief Corps said the victims were volunteers.
- The Israeli military claimed the facility was “a military building” and that it had killed a member of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other fighters.
- Hezbollah pledged to avenge the attack, saying it “will not pass without punishment”.
Two killed near Bureij camp
Israeli shelling has killed two Palestinians towards the east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting.
The casualties come after Israeli forces killed at least one and wounded others west of Nuseirat refugee camp, also in the centre area of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israel ‘likely to continue genocide crimes’ despite ceasefire call
Israel is not expected to comply with the UN Security Council’s recent call for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to an international law expert.
“Israel has a significant record of non-compliance with international law,” Lima Bastami, director of the law department at the Geneva-based civil society organisation Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, told Anadolu Agency.
“Although compliance with the UN Security Council resolution is mandatory, there are no direct measures or sanctions in case of non-compliance because it is a decision made under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter. We will likely witness Israel continuing to commit genocide crimes in Gaza, and have to appeal to the UN Security Council to issue a new decision.”
The possibility of decisions being made under the UN Charter, involving economic and diplomatic sanctions as well as the use of military force in the event of Israel’s noncompliance with the ceasefire call, is “unlikely” due to the US veto power, Bastami said.
