US plans to open sea port in Gaza for aid deliveries: Day 153 of the Gaza war

That's it for our live coverage of the Gaza war and related regional conflicts for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis, right here at L'Orient Today. Thanks for joining us.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society shared a video on its official X account showing inside a medical tent in Khan Younis that functions as an outpost for medical treatment provided by a team of volunteer medical workers.

A Palestinian man walks amid the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 6, 2024. (Credit: AFP)

Children carry kitchen utensils as they walk toward a food distribution point in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 7, 2024. (Credit: AFP)

The United States aims to increase aid deliveries by establishing a port on Gaza's coast, in a major operation that is not expected to involve American military personnel on the ground, according to a senior official cited by AFP.

With Israel blocking aid to Gaza as well as within it, where it is carrying out a devastating offensive, insufficient supplies are reaching the starving population by land — and airdrops carried out by Washington and its allies are not enough to close the gap.

US President Joe Biden "will announce in his State of the Union address that he has directed the US military to undertake an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza working in partnership with like-minded countries and humanitarian partners," a senior administration official told journalists.

The port will feature a temporary pier that will "provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day," according to the official, who said "this is foreseen to be an operation that won't require US boots on the ground."

The official cautioned that "to really address the urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza and to enable humanitarian partners to safely distribute life-saving aid throughout Gaza at the scale that is needed, it is essential that we see a temporary ceasefire in Gaza."

Hezbollah announced the death of its fighter Fadi Mahmoud Dawi, born in 1976 in Aitaroun, Bint Jbeil district, killed in an Israeli strike on this same town earlier today, bringing to 235 the number of Hezbollah members killed since Oct. 8, in Lebanon and Syria combined, according to our count.

The Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, also reported on X that Israeli forces had attacked military buildings belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, in particular in Aitaroun and Aita al-Shaab, Bint Jbeil district.

Here are the latest updates from the Lebanon-Israel border:

• Hezbollah reported targeting the Israeli Radar site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with precision missile strikes at 4:50 p.m.

• Another statement from Hezbollah announced its fighters had launched an aerial attack at 3:30 p.m., deploying two assault drones targeting the Ma'aleh Golan military base near the border.

• In response to the Israeli attack on Aitaroun, Hezbollah reportedly targeted a deployment of Israeli soldiers in the town of Metula, facing the Lebanese southern town of Khiam in the Marjayoun district, at 4:30 p.m.

• According to a security source, Israel conducted three strikes targeting Wadi al-Aziya in the Sour district.

• Hezbollah reportedly targeted the Rwaisat al-Alam site in the occupied hills of Kfar Shuba with precision missile strikes at 5 p.m.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt questioned the consistency of US diplomacy toward the ongoing conflict in Lebanon and Gaza in a post published Tuesday on X, writing: "If [US] Vice President Kamala Harris is advocating for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, why isn't President Joe Biden's special envoy Amos Hochstein doing the same for Lebanon?"

Jumblatt believes that in order to avoid cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalating into a full-scale war, a cease-fire needs to be imposed in Gaza first.

"To achieve lasting stability on the southern border, the international community cannot press to impose [on Lebanon] the withdrawal of Hezbollah [to the north of the Litani River] without negotiating the 1949 armistice," the former Progressive Socialist Party leader said during a meeting with Hochstein on Monday at Clemenceau.

This was the first time the American envoy, who has visited the country numerous times since the outbreak of the Gaza war, expanded his meetings to include Jumblatt and other opposition figures.

👉 On Wednesday, Walid Jumblatt spoke to L'Orient-Le Jour about his initial assessment of the two politicians' discussions.

A recent report from the BBC’s fact-checking team, BBC Verify, details the results of an investigation into Israel's claims as to how many Palestinian fighters its military has killed in Gaza. 

The Israeli military claims that its forces have killed more than 10,000 Palestinian fighters in Gaza, but its ability to distinguish between civilians and fighters has long been brought into question.

The team analyzed media reports, footage, and social media claims in order to try to get a better understanding of what the figures might actually be. It reviewed all 280 videos posted to the Israeli army’s YouTube channel from Oct. 7 to Feb. 27 and found that “very few contained visual evidence of fighters being killed.”

Of all 280 videos, the team could only find one that purports to show the bodies of Palestinian fighters.

👉 Read more here.

Mourners watch as medical personnel transport the bodies of 47 Palestinians, that were taken and later released by Israel, during a mass funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 7, 2024. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)

Here are the latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:

• Hezbollah stated that, in retaliation for the Israeli attack on the town of Dhaira, Sour district, which resulted in the death of one citizen, the party's fighters launched rockets at the Israeli village of Avdon at 2:50 p.m. Haaretz reported that rocket alarms were activated in the villages of Avdon and Ya'ara in northern Israel.

• Residents informed our correspondent in the South that the villages of Kfar Kila and Khiam, both located in the Marjeyoun district, were subjected to Israeli artillery shelling.

• Local residents reported Israeli artillery shelling on the outskirts of Kfar Shuba, Hasbaya district.

India's navy evacuated all 20 crew from a stricken vessel in the Red Sea today, after a Houthi attack killed three seafarers in the first fatalities from the Yemeni group's campaign against the key shipping route, which has been ongoing for over three months.

According to a Reuters report, the Houthis fired a missile at the Barbados-flagged, Greek-operated True Confidence yesterday about 50 nautical miles off the southern Yemeni port of Aden, setting it ablaze.

In a statement, the owners and manager said all 20 crew and three armed guards on board were taken to hospital in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa by an Indian warship.

Two of the dead were Filipino nationals, while the third was Vietnamese, the owners and managers said, expressing condolences to families. Two other Filipinos were also severely injured.

👉 Read the full report here.

"Needless to say, Israel will do whatever it takes to release our hostages. We've made very, very clear and this has been reiterated by the US that, unfortunately, it is Hamas who is the stumbling block right now by not telling us who is alive and who they have in their custody," Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer says, cited by Reuters.

Hamas has stated that for logistical reasons, it is impossible for the group to provide a comprehensive list of hostages in Gaza until a cease-fire is implemented and Israeli troops withdraw. The Israeli army has dissected the Strip and runs a checkpoint sectioning off northern Gaza. Hamas says hostages are scattered in various locations throughout the Strip, which has suffered extreme destruction from five months of Israeli bombardment.

This picture taken from Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip shows Israeli military vehicles exiting Gaza on March 7, 2024. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)

⚡ The Israeli army will continue to operate against Hamas in all of the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, "Hamas' final stronghold," says Isreali PM Benjamin Netanyahu, cited by Reuters.

The Hamas delegation left Cairo today but announced in a statement in the afternoon that it will continue with Gaza cease-fire talks until an agreement is reached with Israel. The negotiations are set to continue next week once the delegations have been able to consult their leadership regarding potential next moves.

"Hamas's delegation left Cairo this morning for consultation with the leadership of the movement, with negotiations and efforts continuing to stop the aggression, return the displaced and bring in relief aid to our people," the Hamas statement said.

But senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Israel had been "thwarting" efforts to conclude a cease-fire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt during four days of talks hosted by Cairo.

Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Israel was rejecting Hamas' demands to end its offensive in the enclave, withdraw its forces, and ensure freedom of entry for aid and the return of  displaced people.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman accused South Africa of "continuing to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel's inherent right to defend itself and its citizens and to release all hostages," in a posting on X.

"South Africa's repeated requests for provisional measures to aid Hamas are yet another cynical exploitation of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which has already twice rejected baseless attempts to deprive Israel of its right and obligation to self-defense," said Lior Haiat.

"Israel is acting and will continue to act in accordance with international law, including facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, regardless of any legal proceedings," he added.

"We call on the ICJ to reject categorically the new request from the Hamas representatives," he added.

According to AFP, South Africa yesterday asked the ICJ to impose new emergency measures on Israel, due to what it describes as "widespread starvation" in Gaza.

In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that might fall under the genocide convention and to ensure that its troops do not commit genocidal acts against Palestinians after South Africa accused Israel of state genocide.

Here is what happened on the Lebanese-Israeli border since 12:20 p.m.:

- Hezbollah announced that it targeted the launcher of Zaoura with rockets at 12:20 p.m.

- The Israeli army said that nine rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel and that two were intercepted, according to Haaretz.

- According to a security source and residents' testimonies relayed by our correspondent in the South, Israeli jets bombed the village of Aita al-Shaab and targeted a house in Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil). Ambulances headed to the targeted house in Aitaroun, residents told L'Orient Today.

- Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Majidiye, Wazzani (Hasbaya) and Rmaish (Bint Jbeil), according to residents.

The war in the Gaza Strip, which has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, entered its sixth month on Thursday as international mediators attempt to negotiate a truce in the besieged, famine-stricken Palestinian territory.

Since Sunday, a Hamas delegation has been holding unsuccessful talks in Cairo with American, Egyptian and Qatari representatives, but without Israeli presence, on a possible six-week truce.

Read more here.

Here is what happened on the Lebanese-Israeli border since 11 a.m.:

- Hezbollah announced that it targeted with artillery shells a new Israeli headquarters in the village of Liman, facing the Lebanese village of Naqoura, at 11 a.m.

- The Israeli army said that 10 rockets were fired earlier from Lebanon towards Israel, according to Haaretz. The Israeli army added that nine of them were intercepted and one fell in the sea.

- Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Naqoura (Sour), residents told our correspondent in the South.

- Haaretz reported that rocket alarms were activated in some villages in Upper Galilee.

Gaza's health ministry announced that at least 30,800 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 83 of them over the last 24 hours.

The ministry added that 142 people were injured in the last 24 hours, making the total number of people injured 72,298.

Here is what happened at the Lebanese-Israeli border in the past 1.5 hours:

- Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, Yaroun (Bint Jbeil) and Khiam plain (Marjayoun), residents told our correspondent in the South.

- Residents reported that they heard interceptor missiles exploding over Labbouneh (Sour).

- Rocket alarms were activated in Rosh Hanikra in Northern Israel, according to Haaretz.

- Israel fired machine guns at the village of Wazzani (Hasbaya), forcing farmers to flee the fields and take refuge, according to residents of the village.

A report by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) found that, in addition to two tank shells, the Israeli military likely also shot bursts of machine gun fire at a group of journalists in an Oct. 13 attack that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.

According to the report, cited by Reuters, what likely occurred was "that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists," although the "latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machine gun] fire could not be established."

None of the surviving reporters said that they could remember any gunfire at the time because they were in a heavy state of shock after being targeted by the tank shells.

The report, while not explicitly saying so, indicated that there was a strong possibility that the journalists were deliberately targeted by the Israelis and that, if there was sustained gunfire on the journalists' position, it would only further help to strengthen that argument.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concluded, in a preliminary October report, that the journalists were targeted in the attack.

AFP photojournalist Cristina Assi, who was severely injured in the attack, was only released from the hospital this month after undergoing extensive treatments and surgeries.

Three crew members of a merchant vessel, the True Confidence, were killed on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden by a missile from Yemen, according to the US military, in what appears to be the first direct fatal attack by Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen.

The Yemeni insurgents claim to be targeting ships they believe to be linked to Israel or its allies, notably the US and the UK, and to be acting in support of Gaza.

A Palestinian man walks amid the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 6, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas movement. (Credit: AFP)

According to several Israeli media, the Israeli army today announced the death of another of its soldiers killed in fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of soldiers killed in the enclave since the end of October to 247.

This total does not include members of the various armed forces and security services killed during the Hamas offensive on Oct. 7, with official figures putting the number of fatalities at 373.

The number of soldiers killed in the daily exchange of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon since Oct. 8 is said to be 10 according to the Israeli military. More generally, the Israeli army's figures are not confirmed by any independent source.

Sweden organized a meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, several European Union member states, as well as other countries, "to convey the urgent need to improve humanitarian access to Gaza," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday.

"The lives and health of Gaza's children must be protected," said Kristersson in a message on X, without giving further details.

The situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border between last night and this morning:

- Last night did not see any strikes on either side of the border.

- This morning, civil defense teams found the body of Rabih al-Yassin (29), a civilian who was killed yesterday in an Israeli strike targeting his home in Dhairah (Sour). The information was confirmed by a medical source, residents and the cousin of the deceased, all of whom were contacted by our correspondent.

In London, after a meeting with Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet – who also visited the United States this week – British Foreign Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that the situation in Gaza "must change"

For its part, Italy announced the launch on Monday of an initiative, "Food for Gaza," aimed at coordinating food aid with specialized UN agencies and the Red Cross.

Some countries, including the United States, Jordan and France, have begun air-dropping aid into the northern Gaza Strip, a solution considered insufficient and dangerous by humanitarian organizations.

Before any agreement can be reached, Hamas is demanding a definitive cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the reconstruction of the territory and the return to their homes of the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the war.

Israel rejects these conditions and insists that the offensive will continue until Hamas is eliminated.

According to media reports, Israel is asking Hamas for a precise list of hostages, but the Islamist movement says it does not know "who is alive or dead" among them.

The United States believes that the ball was in Hamas's court while demanding that the Israelis let in more aid.

Meeting in Cairo, the US, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to reach an agreement on a pause in the fighting before Ramadan, the holy month of Muslim fasting, begins early next week.

Since Sunday in the Egyptian capital, a Hamas delegation has been discussing a possible six-week truce with representatives of these countries – but without Israel present.

This would be associated with the release of hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and still held in Gaza, in exchange for Palestinians incarcerated by Israel, as well as the entry of increased aid into the Palestinian territory.

The situation in Gaza:

China on Thursday called for an "immediate cease-fire" in Gaza, describing the war between Israel and Hamas, now entering its sixth month, as a "disgrace to civilization."

"The fact that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian catastrophe cannot be stopped is a human tragedy, more than that, it is a disgrace to civilization," said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a press conference in Beijing.

Reiterating his country's support for the "full" accession of a Palestinian state to the UN, Wang again called for an "immediate cease-fire" in the besieged territory, the target of incessant Israeli strikes.

Make sure to read the Morning Brief so that you can be caught up with what has been happening.

Morning Brief

Hezbollah calms concerns, over 300 killed in southern Lebanon, failed cease-fire talks: Everything you need to know to start your Thursday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza, its regional and global impact, and the attempts to broker a cease-fire.