That's it for today's live coverage of the war on Gaza, and its repercussions in Lebanon and the region. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis. Goodnight!
The White House on Monday sharply rejected the "straw man" argument adopted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that opposing a major Israeli military operation in Rafah is akin to opposing the total defeat of Hamas, Haaretz reports.
"The president has rejected the straw man that raising questions about Rafah is raising questions about defeating Hamas — that's just nonsense," said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan shortly after US President Joe Biden concluded his first call with Netanyahu in over a month.
"Anytime I hear an argument that says, 'if you don't smash into Rafah, you can't defeat Hamas' I say that is a straw man. Our view is that there are ways for Israel to prevail in this conflict to secure its long-term future, to end the terror threat from Gaza and not smash into Rafah," he added.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrives to a news briefing at the White House on March 18, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP)
Israel killed the Hamas' third-in-command last week, the White House says, after Israel previously said he had been targeted in a Gaza airstrike but did not confirm his death.
"Hamas' number three, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli operation last week," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced as he gave a readout of a call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sullivan said Israel had also "broken a significant number of Hamas battalions, killed 1000s of Hamas fighters including senior commanders."
Israel's claims regarding the number of Palestinian fighters it has killed in its offensive on Gaza have often been brought into question, including notably by the BBC's fact-checking team, BBC Verify, which released a report on the matter last month.
Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul has been released from Israeli custody, after having been detained by the army during its raid of al-Shifa Hospital earlier today, Al Jazeera reports. The army says it killed 20 people and arrested more than 200 during its operation, the second of its kind on the largest hospital in northern Gaza, where thousands of people have sought shelter.
Al-Ghoul spoke to Al Jazeera about his experience, saying that Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa at dawn amid intense fighting. They started by destroying media equipment and arresting the journalists who were gathered in a room used by the media teams.
The journalists were stripped of their clothes, al-Ghoul said, and placed in a room inside the medical compound where they were forced to lie on their stomachs with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied. Israeli soldiers would open fire to scare them if there was any movement, and after about 12 hours they were taken for interrogation.
Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati made a phone call to the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamad Mustafa and congratulated him on his new position, Miktati's office said in a statement.
In his phone call, Mikati expressed his wishes for the Palestinian people's peace and prosperity, and called for the countries of the world to increase the pressure on Israel to stop the "genocide and destruction" of Palestinians, "who should be granted their independent state."
The United States is aware of reports that the Israeli army detained an Al Jazeera journalist, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a news briefing today — cited by Reuters — adding that Washington has sought information from Israel on the incident.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera network said the Israeli forces attacked its correspondent Ismail Alghoul in Gaza while he was working and also destroyed his equipment. The Israeli army has not commented on this incident specifically, other than to announce that it had detained over 80 people, “some of them terrorists,” according to a Haaretz report.
Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in Gaza have reported, upon their release, experiencing serious physical and mental abuse. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in January that it had received testimonies concerning the systematic torture of Palestinians in Israeli army camps.
Israeli policemen try to forcibly remove ultra-orthodox Jewish men protesting against their conscription into the Israeli armed forces, in Jerusalem earlier today. (Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
Israeli policemen try to forcibly remove ultra-orthodox Jewish men protesting against their conscription into the Israeli armed forces, in Jerusalem earlier today. (Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
(Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men protested in Jerusalem today, Haaretz reports, against attempts to change a government policy that grants them exemptions from military conscription on religious grounds.
Thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv in the past few days, urging the government to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to fight in the army.
Updates from the last two hours in southern Lebanon:
• The Israeli army launched airstrikes on the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, in Bint Jbeil district, in which a three-story building was destroyed with no casualties reported, a security source told L'Orient Today. The strike caused fires to break out in nearby shops and markets.
• The Amal Movement’s al-Rissala Scout Association, which sends teams of first responders in the aftermath of strikes, announced that they had transported a wounded person from the village of Mais al-Jabal to a hospital following an Israeli attack. The Israeli army stated earlier that it had attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in the town.
• The Israeli army shelled the southern Lebanese village of Hula, in Marjayoun district, residents of the village told L'Orient Today.
• Hezbollah announced two attacks which they say took place at 7:15 p.m. in which they targeted the Israeli positions of "Birket Risha" and "Hadab Yarin,” located opposite the southern Lebanese villages of Yarine and Marwahine, both in Sour district.
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone today, the White House said, cited by Reuters. It was their first call in more than a month, amid growing tensions between the two over Israel's offensive in Gaza.
The pair last spoke on Feb. 15, and Biden has been increasingly vocal in his criticisms of the Palestinian death toll and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as Israel responds to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks.
"President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza," the White House said in a statement. It said it would release more details about the call later.
In mid-February, a Politico report cited several US officials as saying that the US had not drawn up any plan as to how it would respond should Israel invade Rafah without making significant efforts to protect the civilian population.
In its first statements today, Hezbollah announced having carried out four attacks in the span of 30 minutes:
• Hezbollah announced that at 5:00 and 5:05 p.m. respectively, it attacked the Israeli positions of "Roueissat al-Qorn" and “Zebdine,” both located in the disputed Shebaa Farms — an area which the party considers to be Lebanese.
• The party said that at 5:02 p.m., it used missiles to attack an Israeli military brigade located in "Tallet al-Tayhat," facing the Lebanese border village of Mais al-Jabal, Marjayoun district.
• In their fourth attack of the day, Hezbollah said that they attacked at 5:30 p.m. the Israeli position of “Bayad Blida,” facing the southern Lebanese village of Blida, in Marjayoun district.
David Barnea, the chief of Israel’s national intelligence agency Mossad, has landed in Doha for another round of truce negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari, and American, Haaretz announces.
Barnea is leading the Israeli delegation, which also includes the coordinator for all matters related to hostages in Israel, Nitzan Alon. The chief of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, did not join the delegation.
Reuters quoted an Israeli official saying earlier today that the delegation is aiming to secure a six-week truce in Gaza under which Hamas will release 40 hostages.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed strong condemnation regarding the detention of a team of Al Jazeera journalists, lead by correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, by the Israeli army at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Monday.
Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of CPJ, emphasized the crucial role of journalists during a conflict, stating: “Journalists play an essential role in a war. They are the eyes and the ears that we need to document what’s happening and with every journalist killed, with every journalist arrested, our ability to understand what’s happening in Gaza diminishes significantly.”
Of all the conflicts and cases that the CPJ has documented, Ginsberg said, the war in Gaza is "the worst for journalists" and she warned the situation "is simply getting worse."
An Israeli drone strike struck the upper floor of a two-story house in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, in Marjayoun district, the head of the municipality told L'Orient Today.
He also said that the strike happened at the same time as an Israeli shelling that targeted the outskirts of the village.
(Credit: @ismail_gh2/X)
Ismail al-Ghoul, one of Al Jazeera's journalists detained at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, during the Israeli army's raid of the facility, its second since the start of the war.
Israeli authorities denied the chief of UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) permission to enter the Gaza Strip today, Reuters reports. The block was announced by UNRWA and the Egyptian foreign minister, who called it an unprecedented move.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, speaking alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during a Cairo news conference, said he had intended to go to Rafah on Monday "but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined."
In southern Lebanon:
- An Israeli drone attacked the western district of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), according to reports from local residents. The strike specifically targeted a house near the Imam Ali mosque. There are currently no reports of casualties.
- The al-Rissala Scouts Association, affiliated with the Amal movement, took part in operations to clear rubble and reopen roads following the strike that targeted the locality of Adaisseh (Marjayoun) earlier in the day.
The Israeli army announced that the head of Hamas's internal security, Fa'aq Mabhouh, had been killed in the offensive launched against al-Shifa Hospital on Monday, Haaretz reported.
It also announced that it had arrested "80 suspects," again according to the daily, without mentioning the case of the Al-Jazeera team of journalists.
Al Jazeera Arabic's correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his crew who were sheltering inside the Al-Shifaa hospital were detained by Israeli forces.
Witnesses inside the hospital said they were beaten before being taken to an undisclosed location, Al Jazeera reported.
"We are getting confirmed reports from a doctor inside the hospital that the Israeli military is inside the courtyard of the hospital where bodies are on the ground," Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rafah, Hani Mahmoud, reported.
"There are also multiple injuries, by the tens are counted. Medical staff and paramedics are unable to get to them and move them inside the building," Mahmoud said.
Al-Jazeera also claimed that the Israeli army had destroyed the broadcast vehicles of its news teams on site, pointing out that the hospital had served as a reporting base for its journalists throughout the Gaza war.
Lebanon's caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib praised "Qatar's role in helping Lebanon politically, militarily and economically," in a statement following a meeting between Bou Habib and Qatar's ambassador to Beirut, Sheikh Saoud ben Abdel Rahman al-Thani.
"We hope that Qatar, with the help of all brotherly countries, will be able to halt the escalation of conflict in the region, particularly the war in Gaza, and restore calm to South Lebanon," the Lebanese foreign minister added.
One out of every two inhabitants of the Gaza Strip is facing a catastrophic food situation, particularly in the north where famine will be rife by May in the absence of "urgent" measures, warned the UN's specialized agencies on Monday, reports AFP.
More than 1.1 million Gazans are facing "catastrophic hunger," close to famine, "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN, based on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published on Monday.
The situation in southern Lebanon since midday:
The Lebanese army detonated an unexploded Israeli missile on the outskirts of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun). Residents mistook the explosion for one caused by artillery fire, explained our correspondent in the region.
According to a security source he also contacted, the shell had fallen near the Imam al-Ridha compound four days ago. The army moved it to the valley near the Mais al-Jabal public hospital.
Israel has announced the death of a soldier in the offensive carried out in the al-Shifa hospital compound in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli media.
This brings to 250 the total number of Israeli army soldiers killed since the start of Israel's ground offensive in the besieged Palestinian enclave on Oct. 27.
This total does not include the death toll in the armed forces from the exchange of fire at the border with southern Lebanon, nor that of Oct. 7, 2023.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called on the international community to "step up its efforts to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and enable it to continue fulfilling its humanitarian missions towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and neighboring countries."
"There is no alternative to UNRWA, which was set up after the failure of the two-state solution some 75 years ago, and its role will inevitably come to an end when this solution is implemented and an independent Palestinian state emerges, guaranteeing all refugees their rights and their return to their homeland," the ministry further insisted in a statement.
It also welcomed the decision by several donor countries to resume or even increase their aid to the UN agency.
The situation in southern Lebanon was marked by a new airstrike by the Israeli army on the locality of Adaisseh (Marjayoun), according to residents in the area.
Israel is starving people in Gaza and using famine as a weapon of war, Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Monday, Reuters reported.
"In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine, but in a state of starvation affecting thousands of people," he said more specifically at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid to Gaza in Brussels.
"This is unacceptable. Famine is being used as a weapon of war. Israel is causing famine," he continued.
The Gazan Ministry of Health announced on Monday a new toll of 31,726 people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, reports AFP.
Of these, 81 were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a total of 73,792 people have been wounded since the war began on October 7.
Israel will finally send a delegation headed by the head of Mossad to Qatar today for negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a six-week truce in Gaza, under which the Palestinian militants are expected to release 40 hostages, an Israeli official quoted by Reuters said.
This stage of the negotiations could take at least two weeks, the official said.
Mossad boss David Barnea was initially expected in Doha on Sunday.
Hamas released a statement condemning Israel’s ongoing onslaught on al-Shifa Hospital.
“The crimes of the [Israeli] occupation will not create any image of victory for Netanyahu and his Nazi army,” the statement said. “The crimes of the occupation express confusion and loss of hope of achieving a military achievement.”
In a joint statement, Palestinian factions said targeting hospitals “is a continuation of the war of extermination waged by the occupation against the Palestinian people and a flagrant violation of all international conventions and laws.”
The Israeli military has ordered residents of the Remal neighborhood, where al-Shifa Hospital is located, to evacuate the area.
Israeli military’s spokesman Avichay Adraee instructed them to go to the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone,” a severely overcrowded strip of land serving as one of Gaza’s few designated safe areas.
“A call to all those present and displaced in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and in Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings: In order to maintain your security, you must immediately evacuate the area to the west and then cross Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street to the south to the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” he said in a post on X.
The Israeli army says that the combat in Al-Shifa Hospital continues, with Israeli troops gaining control over the medical compound, and over 80 people arrested, Haaretz reported.
During the night in southern Lebanon:
- After 9.30 p.m., Hezbollah said it had fired artillery shells at Israeli army vehicles entering the Al-Malkia site opposite the Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) at 8.30 p.m.
- Hezbollah also announced that it had targeted the Israeli site of Samaka in the disputed Lebanese hills of Kfar Shouba in the afternoon (without specifying the time).
- After 11.30 p.m., Israeli jets launched two airstrikes with a number of missiles targeting houses near the mosque in the town of Ramieh (Sour), according to a security source.
- At midnight, machine-gun fire from the Israeli town of Metula opposite the Lebanese town of Khiam (Marjayoun) targeted the outskirts of this town as well as the hill of Hamames, further south, a security source reported.
In southern Lebanon this morning, according to a security source, artillery fire targeted the northern outskirts of the town of Naqoura with several shells, and the town of Tayr Harfa with one shell (both located in the Sour district).
The Israeli army spoke to residents over loudspeakers, asking them to stay in their homes, while "drones were firing at people in the streets near the hospital," according to local witnesses interviewed by AFP.
The Israeli army broadcast what it described as an extract from a telephone exchange that took place "over the last few days" between the Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) and an official from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, during which its representative explained that he was "ready" to provide aid if "terrorist activities" within the hospital ceased.
"We confirm that the occupation's [Israel's] stories are false," said the Palestinian movements active in the Gaza Strip in a joint statement.
The Israeli army entered al-Shifa Hospital on Nov. 15, and the facility is now operating with a minimal staff.
This latest offensive on the hospital comes at a time when the mediating countries – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – are attempting to reach a new truce, following the week-long truce at the end of November. Negotiations were due to resume in Doha on Sunday.
Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not accept an agreement "that makes Israel weak and unable to defend itself."
In a new proposal, Hamas says it is ready for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages would be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released. It is also demanding "the withdrawal of the army from towns and populated areas", the "return of displaced persons" and the entry of 500 aid trucks a day into Gaza, according to one of its executives.
This morning's important updates on the situation in Gaza:
The Israeli army announced that it was carrying out an operation on the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in a statement issued on Monday morning, while witnesses on the ground confirmed to AFP that there had been shelling, shooting and fighting.
"The operation was based on information indicating the use of the hospital by high-ranking Hamas terrorists," further justified the Israeli army.
"During the operation, the terrorists opened fire on the troops from the hospital," explained another joint statement from the army and Israeli domestic intelligence.
Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that "tens of thousands" of people were in al-Shifa hospital, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip.
One of the buildings is on fire "following an air strike," it added, lamenting "dozens of martyrs," some bodies having been brought from the outskirts of the hospital, others left on the pavement, "no one being able to transport them to the hospital due to the intensity of the shooting."
On the spot, witnesses confirmed to AFP "aerial operations" on the al-Rimal district, where the hospital is located, in which "shrapnel" was reported to have fallen. Residents of this central Gaza City neighborhood claimed that "more than 45 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers" had entered al-Rimal.
Make sure you read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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