That's it for today's live coverage of the Gaza war, and its repercussions in Lebanon and the region. We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis. Thanks for joining us!
Updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:
• Hezbollah claims to have successfully targeted a deployment of Israeli soldiers gathered on "Israeli Quarantine Hill" at 7:40 p.m.
• Israeli fighter jets fired several shells on the outskirts of Kfar Kila, Marjayoun district, a security source told our correspondent in South Lebanon.
• Israeli artillery fire targeted the village of Tayr Harfa and Dhaira, Sour district, according to local residents.
• Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the village of Aitaroun, Bint Jbeil district, our correspondent reports, quoting local residents. The missile did not explode, but still caused a fire in the house. First responders from the al-Rissala Scouts were dispatched to the scene.
A wave of protests occurred across Israel today against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, urging war Cabinet member Benny Gantz to leave the coalition, and demanding early elections, Haaretz reports.
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Be'er Sheva, as well as near Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea, and hundreds more, among them relatives of hostages, blocked Tel Aviv's Begin Road, lighting a bonfire.
The most prominent anti-government protest was held in central Tel Aviv, where demonstrators blocked the Ayalon Highway, a major inter city freeway.
In Haifa, former army deputy chief Yair Golan, who gained public support after rescuing partygoers on Oct. 7, delivered a speech in which he called on Gantz to stop supporting Netanyahu:
"Those who promised to be an opposition are turning out to be the fortifiers of Netanyahu's rule and his irresponsible government … What are you still doing there, why do you continue lending a hand? Leave this government now."
The head of the World Health Organization urged Israel to abandon an assault on Rafah, the southern Gazan city where more than half the population has gone in search of refuge from Israeli bombardment.
"I am gravely concerned by reports of an Israeli plan to launch a ground attack on Rafah. A further escalation of violence in this densely populated area would lead to even more death and suffering," wrote Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X.
"In the name of humanity, we call on Israel not to go ahead and to work for peace instead," he added, believing that the evacuation planned by the Israeli army before an assault is not a practical solution.
Updates from southern Lebanon over the last two hours:
• Israeli warplanes carried out a second raid on the village of Marwahine, Bint Jbeil district, a security source told our correspondent.
• A source in the Amal Movement's civil defense association (al-Rissala scouts) said the attack "targeted a two-story home which was completely destroyed" in the Mfaylha area. "Three homes were partially destroyed and others were damaged," it added. There have been no reports of casualties so far.
• At 6:20 p.m., Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at the Shakhroub area, in the village of Kfar Kila, in Marjayoun district, our correspondent reports, citing a security source. The shells fell close to a house but did not explode.
The Lebanese TV channel LBCI and its journalist Rawad Taha are facing controversy after publishing a video online on Thursday calling the Gaza war a battle of the "crazy and the extremists, starting with the events of Oct.7."
In his reel, Taha called the "crazy leaders in Gaza and the crazy right-wing leaders in Israel two sides of the same coin."
He compared Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who he said had "threatened to set fire to a bridge and had bought 700 liters of diesel to set fire to implement this, in an attempt to pressure Israeli troops to not withdraw from Gaza in 2005" — to Mohammed Deif, the head of the Qassam Brigades, which is the armed wing of Hamas.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi met with commanders, soldiers, and police officers serving in the West Bank yesterday, and told the military personnel that Israel is in "a multi-front war," referring to Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Gaza, "and beyond."
"There have already been several attempted terror attack in different places this week," Halevi said, adding that "We are alert this month ... Every incident that happens in one of [the war's] fronts has a real impact and can spread to other areas as well."
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is on an uptick as the Israeli army conducts regular raids in Palestinian neighborhoods. Palestinian fighters have engaged the Israeli army in fighting at various locations and several stabbings of Israeli soldiers by Palestinian individuals, including boys as young as 15 years old, have also been reported.
US and Jordanian aircraft have dropped food supplies to Palestinian civilians as part of a joint humanitarian aid operation, the US military's Middle East Command (CENTCOM) reported on X.
The drops were made by a US Air Force C-130 aircraft and a Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 aircraft. According to AFP, Germany's Bundeswehr armed forces joined the operation.
"We continue to plan for further air deliveries," CENTCOM said in a statement relayed by Reuters.
Photo: A C-130 transport aircraft from the bi-national Franco-German Rhine squadron drops humanitarian aid into Gaza on Mar. 16, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Latest developments in south Lebanon
• Israeli fighter jets have raided the western outskirts of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun district), our correspondent reports, quoting residents.
• A house, which was hit earlier in the day by unexploded Israeli rockets, was again targeted.
A second ship loaded with humanitarian aid is ready for imminent departure from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip, following the arrival of 200 tons of food on board the Open Arms NGO ship on Friday, Cypriot authorities have announced.
Cypriot Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told public radio that the ship, named "Jennifer," was ready to leave "today [Saturday] or tomorrow [Sunday]" for the Gaza Strip, according to AFP.
The ship will use the humanitarian maritime corridor opened from the Cypriot port of Larnaca and used for the first time by the Spanish NGO Open Arms.
The situation in Gaza is "catastrophic," warned the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on X.
In Gaza, UNRWA is "working tirelessly in extremely difficult conditions to help families in need," the agency added.
"The situation is catastrophic and deteriorating by the minute," it also deplored.
UNRWA said that "safe, unhindered and sustainable access across the Gaza Strip is necessary at this time."
Mossad chief is expected to resume Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Israel’s “tactics of starvation” in Gaza are “inadmissible” as he met UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
“Israel urgently needs to provide more humanitarian access to Gaza,” De Croo wrote on X.
He added that Belgium continued to support the UN refugee agency for Palestinians, which is “the backbone of aid to the people in Gaza," and expressed his condolences for the killing of 160 UNRWA staff in Gaza.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel today to allow humanitarian aid access to Gaza on a larger scale, ahead of a two-day trip to the Middle East, according to Reuters.
Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Ramtha site in the occupied Lebanese Kfar Shuba hills at 3:42 p.m.
Latest update on Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel
• Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Samaka site, in the occupied Lebanese Kfar Shuba Farms, at 3:40 p.m.
• Hezbollah announced that it targeted the Israeli Malikiyah position, located opposite Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district, at 3:30 p.m.
Yemen's Houthi rebels discussed "expanding confrontations and encircling" Israel in a meeting in Lebanon with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, a Houthi official told AFP today.
US and Jordanian aircraft dropped food supplies to Palestinian civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip today in a joint humanitarian aid operation, US Central Command said in a statement via Reuters.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli fire and bombardment mainly targeted villages in the Marjayoun district in the afternoon.
• Israeli aircraft bombed Markaba, according to a security source.
• Residents reported artillery fire on the outskirts of Wazzani.
• These villages, as well as the locality of Houla, were also targeted by artillery fire, according to a security source.
• Residents of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila also reported that artillery shells fell in an area between the two towns.
• Israeli warplanes targeted Oweida, on the outskirts of Adaisseh.
Artillery fire also hit Jibbayn (Sour district).
A Palestinian gunman opened fire toward a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank today before being shot dead by Israeli soldiers there, Reuters reports, citing Israel's military. ➡️ More details here.
One in three children under age two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished, and famine is looming, the main UN agency operating in the Palestinian enclave says, Reuters reports.
"Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza," the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post. ➡️ More details here.
Gaza casualty toll update: The Health Ministry in Gaza says that at least 31,553 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants, AFP reports.
The agency adds that the latest toll includes at least 63 deaths in the previous 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,546 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Here’s an update on the security situation on the Lebanon-Israel border:
* Israel targeted the outskirts of Houla (Marjayoun district), according to local residents.
* Israeli warplanes fired two missiles on the outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun district,) but the missiles did not explode, residents told our correspondent in the south. The warplanes are still flying over the area.
* Israeli warplanes raided and completely destroyed a two-story house of the outskirts of Marwahine (Bint Jbeil)
* Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Baghdadi site, which faces the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab, at 11:15 a.m.
The Hamas government in Gaza has reported 60 Israeli strikes overnight on several areas of the Gaza Strip, as well as "violent fighting" in Khan Younis, in the south, and in Zaytoun, in Gaza City, AFP reports.
The cargo of the first humanitarian aid boat to arrive in the Gaza Strip from Cyprus has now been unloaded and is ready for distribution to a population threatened with starvation after more than five months of war, the NGO in charge of the operation says, AFP reports.
"The entire shipment has been unloaded and is being prepared for distribution in Gaza," World Central Kitchen said in a statement sent to AFP.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced late yesterday on X that Yemen's Houthi rebels had "fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Red Sea." It added that "there were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships."
Since November, the Houthis have stepped up their attacks on merchant and sometimes military vessels off the coast of Yemen, forcing many shipowners to adopt much longer routes in order to avoid this area. The Houthis, supported by Iran, say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In response, Washington, Israel's main ally, set up a multinational coalition in December to "protect" maritime traffic but this has thus far failed to stop the attacks.
Leaders of Hamas and the Yemeni Houthi rebels held a rare meeting last week to discuss "coordinating" their actions against Israel, sources within the Palestinian factions told AFP last night.
According to these sources within the Palestinian Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, leaders of these two organizations, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), held an "important meeting" with Houthi leaders "last week."
What did the representatives of these various factions talk about? Read more here.
However, while negotiations for a truce continue behind the scenes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved, according to AFP, the Israeli army's "action plans" for an offensive on Rafah, where, according to the UN, around 1.5 million Palestinians are massed, the vast majority of them displaced from their homes throughout the enclave. The offensive could take place in the absence of a truce agreement or following a six-week pause in the fighting, should a cease-fire deal be reached.
"The Israeli army is ready for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population," Netanyahu's office said, giving no further details on this long-announced operation, against which the United States and the UN have repeatedly warned.
"We will not support a plan that does not take into account the one and a half million Palestinians," John Kirby, a White House spokesman, cautioned on Friday.
"I want [help] for my children. I want them to live and not starve. They only eat wild plants; there's no bread. There's nothing to eat in Gaza. It's the month of Ramadan and there's nothing," Abu Issa Ibrahim Filfil, a Palestinian who came to watch the food aid ship's arrival, told AFP.
With the UN fearing widespread famine in Gaza, particularly in the north, a race against time is underway to deliver more humanitarian aid by parachute or via a new sea corridor from Cyprus.
The organization World Kitchen Central (WCK) is unloading 200 tons of food from a ship belonging to the Spanish NGO Open Arms, which left Cyprus on Tuesday.
"WCK is offloading almost 200 tons of rice, flour, protein & more that arrived by sea earlier today. At the same time this shipment is transported ashore, our second vessel is preparing to set sail from Cyprus with hundreds more tons of food", the NGO posted late on Friday evening on X.
"Despite the darkness and the difficulties, work is not stopping in Gaza to unload the 200 tons of food from WCKitchen … Let's hope that this corridor that we have opened today will constitute a parallel route to the land routes to alleviate hunger and suffering," added Open Arms.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the mediating countries are working "hard to bridge the remaining gap" with a view to an agreement on the hostages and a truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has announced that an Israeli delegation will travel to Qatar as part of the hostage exchange negotiations, without specifying when. And the White House has said it is "cautiously optimistic" about the truce negotiations.
As we reported yesterday on efforts to mediate a truce between Hamas and Israel, the Palestinian Islamist movement, which has until now demanded a definitive cease-fire from Israel before any agreement can be reached on the release of hostages held in Gaza, has indicated it is prepared to accept a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages — women, children, the elderly and the sick — could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners. With this in mind, the Islamist movement is demanding the "withdrawal of the army from all towns and populated areas," the "return of displaced persons without restrictions" and the entry of at least 500 lorries of humanitarian aid per day into Gaza, one of its executives told AFP.
During the night in Gaza, an Israeli strike on a house where displaced people were sheltering in Nusseirat (central Gaza) left 36 dead, including women and children, the spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health Ministry Ashraf al-Qudra announced early this morning.
Some 123 people in total have been killed since yesterday evening in bombings across the enclave, according to the same source.
To start the day, here's an update on the security situation on the Lebanon-Israel border:
* Last night, Hezbollah said it targeted, at 8:55 p.m., an Israeli army force in the vicinity of the Jal al-Alam site.
* According to security sources, at 3:40 a.m. this morning, Israeli warplanes raided an empty house in the town of Tayr Harf (Sour district), but no injuries were reported.
* Israeli artillery targeted the plain of Khiam (Marjayoun district) this morning, local residents reported.
Good morning,
We're here with live updates from Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and the wider region on day 162 of the Gaza war.
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