Another 5 Palestinians killed in Israel’s genocide in Gaza amid wider war

Israel has killed another five Palestinians as its genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated amid a widening regional conflict triggered by joint United States-Israel strikes on Iran two weeks ago. Sources at hospitals in Gaza told Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground on Saturday that the five deaths occurred in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight since Friday evening.

The Israeli military attacks Gaza relentlessly, despite an October 10 “ceasefire”, it has violated hundreds of time. Seven people have been killed since Thursday morning, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said early on Saturday, with 658 people killed in the besieged enclave since the “ceasefire”.

Israeli forces on Saturday also attacked a police post in Khan Younis, killing two police officers and wounding others.

Meanwhile, sandstorms have swept across the Gaza Strip, worsening conditions and piling on the misery for tens of thousands of displaced people.

⚡️☘️⚡️The sandstorm in Gaza makes everything worse. Please support the appeals of these & others to ease their misery in Gaza @nwr_mhmd95093 @SheblyMobi83237 @nsm581987992184 @MohamedSFaraj93 @noor_noor50586 @FatmaKh90411471 ☘️☘️☘️ https://t.co/NS1jPN4mso

— Madame Roux 🇵🇸 (@Madame9Roux) March 14, 2026

Witnesses reported that the dust-laden winds swept through the camps, worsening the plight of families living in worn-out tents.

‘Why can’t I walk?’

Meanwhile, Palestinians are also suffering with the ongoing closure of the Rafah border crossing, which Israel has shut amid its attacks on Iran.

Nearly six months into the “ceasefire”, thousands of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, are still waiting for urgent medical evacuation. Only a trickle of people have managed to leave for treatment overseas since Israel partially opened the crossing before slamming it shut again.

Hamdi is one such child waiting for treatment abroad after he was severely injured during Israel’s bombardment. At the age of 12, he is learning how to walk again, with much of his day spent in physical therapy sessions. “Every day he watches kids playing football and starts crying. He asks me, why am I not like them? Why can’t I walk?” Amer Hamadi, the boy’s father, told Al Jazeera.

Doctors say early and intensive treatment is critical for patients with severe spinal and nerve injuries, but more than two years of Israeli bombardment have decimated Gaza’s healthcare system.

“We bring him here for physiotherapy while we wait for approval to travel abroad to remove the shrapnel from his body. Doctors say that if he can have the surgery, there is still a chance he could walk again,” said Hamadi.

While Hamdi has permission to leave, he is still trapped in Gaza due to Israel’s closure of Rafah. “After a long wait, we finally managed to get him a referral for treatment abroad, but then the crossing closed,” Hamdi’s mother, Sabreen Mazen, told Al Jazeera.

Israel threatens to strike ambulances in Lebanon in Hezbollah fighting

⁠The Israeli military warned ​on Saturday that it may strike ambulances and medical facilities which it said were being used unlawfully by Hezbollah in Lebanon, ​though it did not provide evidence for the claim. At least 26 medics and first responders have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2 according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military says it ​takes precautions to try to reduce any harm to civilians. More details with FRANCE 24 Senior Reporter in Beirut, Catherine Norris-Trent.

Is the world ignoring Gaza?

Amid the US and Israel’s war on Iran, we discuss the impact on diplomatic efforts and support for Palestine.

The already catastrophic situation in Gaza is getting worse as the United States and Israel’s war in Iran rages on. Until late last month, the US said its ambitious plans to rebuild Gaza were on track.

After two years of Israel’s genocidal war on the strip, the Rafah border crossing had partially reopened. Limited food aid was allowed in and a small number of people were able to enter and exit Gaza.

But all that came to a halt when the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran last month, shifting the world’s focus away from Palestine. So, what does it all mean for the Palestinians still in dire need of aid? And where does it leave diplomatic efforts to maintain a shaky ceasefire?

Israeli-backed Palestinian militias step up operations against Hamas in Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/13/israeli-backed-palestinian-militias-against-hamas-gaza

Armed groups appear to have increased their firepower as they carry out raids deep in Hamas-controlled territory

Pro-Israel Palestinian militia have launched repeated raids, clandestine assassination and abduction operations deep inside parts of Gaza controlled by Hamas in recent months, with new operations launched recently despite the outbreak of conflict with Iran.

The militia, which are all based in eastern parts of Gaza that are under Israeli control after a ceasefire came into effect in October, have received significant logistic support from Israel since last year but appear to have increased their firepower, allowing new and more aggressive attacks in recent weeks.

The most powerful among the Israeli-backed militia are the Popular Forces, based around the ruins of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and the Strike Force Against Terror, which operates east of the shattered city of Khan Younis. Both have struck into Hamas-controlled territory in recent weeks.

Israel has tasked the militia with security duties within the zone it controls and deployed armed men from the Popular Forces at the Rafah crossing to Egypt after it partially opened last month. Days later, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned of “a pattern of ill-treatment, abuse and humiliation of returnees by Israeli forces and armed Palestinians allegedly backed by the Israeli military”.

A third pro-Israeli militia based in northern Gaza, known as the Ashraf al-Mansi group, sent fighters across the “yellow line”, which currently divides zones of control in Gaza, last week, on what appears to have been a mission to ambush Hamas patrols and possibly assassinate senior Hamas figures. Officials from Hamas said it had foiled the attempt amid fighting in the Nasser neighbourhood of Gaza City.

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The enhanced role of the militias is a further challenge for plans for an international stabilisation force in Gaza. The US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, which aims to demilitarise the territory, formally entered its second phase in January, but progress had stalled even before the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran, and the spiralling conflict it has triggered.

Hamas, which controls most of the coastal strip where almost all the 2.3 million population of Gaza now live, is reluctant to fully disarm and Israel appears unwilling to relinquish its control over more than half of the territory. The Popular Forces have also been deployed against Hamas militants holding out in a tunnel complex near Rafah.

In January, the group posted footage of Ghassan al-Duhaini, its leader, with a captured semi-naked, injured Hamas commander. On camera, Duhaini slapped the captive and addressed Hamas, telling the group: “Your terrorism is over. We’ll fight with force and won’t allow anyone to sabotage efforts for peace.” He later threatened to execute the captive.

The pro-Israeli militia groups, who have a collective strength of only a few hundred fighters, have also been used for attacks deep into the Hamas-controlled coastal strip. The Popular Army, another Israel-supported militia, which has around 30 fighters, recently assassinated the senior officer of a Hamas police unit that targets collaborators.

According to reliable analysts and reports from Gaza, Hamas militants chased the attackers as they returned to the Israeli-controlled zone from the scene of the attack in the coastal al-Mawasi area, but abandoned their pursuit when targeted by Israeli drones.



Ceasefire my ass. Supporting criminal gangs in Gaza to incite civil war. Same old tactic to destabilize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran. Arm militias while providing cover for them.

Statistics from Acled show 265 attacks launched by Israel in the month after the October ceasefire, rising to about 350 each month since, to reach a total of 1,664 in mid-March.

Israeli officials say the strikes are retaliation after attacks by Hamas and infiltration attempts across the yellow line, but many target individuals far from the immediate site of any alleged breach of the ceasefire, suggesting a campaign with broader strategic aims.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, bringing the overall total for the war to more than 72,000, mostly civilians.

Israeli strikes in Gaza, which had averaged around 10 a day across the devastated territory over the last five months, have continued even as Israeli jets carry out bombing campaigns in Iran and Lebanon.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike and tank shelling killed ​six Palestinians, including two women and a girl, in separate attacks in Gaza City, the deadliest incidents ‌in Gaza since the US-Israeli offensive on Iran began, health officials said. At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by airstrikes since the outbreak of war with Iran on 28 February, health officials say.

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Tahani Mustafa, an expert in regional armed groups and lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, said the intensified activity of the militia in Gaza was unlikely to stabilise the devastated territory.

“The problem is that these [pro-Israeli] gangs have not only been implicated in criminality but also are operating with an occupying force that is responsible for mass devastation and starvation … They have given Hamas an inadvertent popularity boost, not because people sympathise with Hamas ideology, but because there is no one else.”

Hamas has so far stayed on the sidelines of the new conflict in the region, restricting any involvement to a statement welcoming the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader and condemning “Israeli-US aggression”.

Lebanon ready for peace talks with Israel, but wants ceasefire first

With Israel threatening its biggest ground invasion of Lebanon since 2006, a diplomatic track is opening up.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deployed his most trusted fixer, Ron Dermer, to essentially head up the Lebanon brief. The expectation is that, on the US side, it would be Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Talks could well begin within days – direct, head-to-head talks – possibly in Paris or Cyprus.

There has also been reporting that the French have proposed a peace plan that would see Hezbollah disarmed as one of the core demands, and would also see Lebanon recognise Israel – an unprecedented development – as a requirement for ending the war. However, the French Foreign Ministry has recently denied that reporting.

Lebanese officials say they are ready for direct talks with Israel. Having said that, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, from the Amal party – a Shia party allied with Hezbollah – has said there should be a ceasefire before any talks. That could prove a complication.

‘No French plan’ to stop Israel’s war on Lebanon: France

France has denied reports it’s preparing a diplomatic proposal to halt Israel’s war on Lebanon. The Foreign Ministry said there is “no French plan” to end the conflict.

“France has supported the Lebanese authorities’ openness to direct talks with Israel and has offered to facilitate them. It will be up to the parties, and only the parties, to define the agenda for these discussions,” the ministry said.

The clarification follows a report by Axios suggesting France drafted a proposal to end the war that included Lebanon officially recognising the state of Israel.

Hezbollah battles advancing Israeli troops as strikes pummel villages across south Lebanon

Israeli air raids and artillery fire are striking multiple towns in southern Lebanon, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency.

The news report said air strikes hit the town of Mefdoun and the surrounding area between Mefdoun and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

At the same time, heavy artillery targeted nearby towns including Zawtar, Yahmar, Arnoun and Mefdoun.

Separately, Israeli forces attempted to advance into Aita al-Shaab where gunfire and shelling were heard. The report said fighters from Hezbollah responded by firing guided missiles at advancing Israeli troops.

Israeli air strike kills family of 4 in southern Lebanon

An Israeli air strike has killed an entire family in southern Lebanon, according to the official National News Agency. The attack hit a house in the town of Qantara, killing four members of the al-Saghir family. The victims include a father, a mother and their two children, the report said.

Israeli attacks have killed 826 people in Lebanon since the US-Israeli assault on Iran began on February 28, with the conflict now embroiling much of the Middle East.


Israeli attacks kill 5 in southern Lebanon, including child

Lebanon’s emergency services say Israeli attacks on two towns in the country’s south have killed at least five people and wounded seven others.

In a statement carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency, the emergency services said that “the Israeli enemy raid on the town of Mefdoun – Nabatieh district resulted in the martyrdom of four citizens, including a child, and the injury of five others, and that the raid on the town of Majdal Selem – Marjayoun district resulted in the martyrdom of one citizen and the injury of two others”.

Hezbollah fires missile salvo at Israeli troops near Lebanon border

The Lebanese group says it launched a missile attack targeting Israeli soldiers near the Lebanon border.

In a statement carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency, Hezbollah said it struck a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers in Khallat al-Mahafir, in the town of Odaisseh.

Israeli attacks kill 13 in Gaza, including 2 children and a pregnant woman

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 patients await evacuation as the Rafah crossing is set to partially reopen on Wednesday.



Israeli air strikes have killed at least 13 Palestinians including two boys, a pregnant woman, and nine police officers in war-torn Gaza.

An attack on Sunday hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing four people, including a couple in their 30s and their 10-year-old son, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Hospital. The woman was pregnant with twins, the hospital said. The fourth person who died, a 15-year-old neighbour, was taken to the al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat.

“We were sleeping and got up to the strike of a missile. The strike was strong,” said Mahmoud al-Muhtaseb, a neighbour. “There was no prior warning.”

Another strike hit a police vehicle on the south-north Philadelphi Corridor at the entrance of the central town of az-Zawayda, the Interior Ministry said. The bombing killed nine police officers, including Colonel Iyad Ab Yousef, a senior police official in central Gaza, the ministry said. The Al-Aqsa Hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll. It said 14 others were wounded.

The ministry said it “condemns the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation this afternoon when it bombed a police vehicle… The officers and personnel were performing their duties monitoring markets and maintaining security and order during the holy month of Ramadan”. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on either strike.

Sunday’s deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a “ceasefire” deal between Israel and Hamas attempted to halt Israel’s more than two-year genocidal war on Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, there are still near-daily Israeli attacks. Aside from the Israeli air strikes, its forces frequently fire on Palestinians near Israeli military-held zones. More than 650 Palestinians have been killed since October 10, 2025, according to Gaza health officials.

Rafah crossing allegedly to reopen

Israel has announced it will partially reopen Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt on Wednesday, ending a two-week shutdown that has deepened an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

The Israeli military body overseeing civilian affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, COGAT, said the crossing would resume operations on March 18 for limited passenger movement in both directions, with no cargo permitted.

Entry and exit will require prior Israeli security clearance, coordination with Egypt, and oversight from the European Union border mission that deployed there in early February.

The announcement comes as more than 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians, among them roughly 4,000 cancer patients and 4,500 children, remain on waiting lists for medical treatment unavailable in Gaza. Of those, nearly 440 cases are classified as immediately life-threatening.

Israel shut the crossing on February 28, the same day it and the United States launched strikes on Iran, citing “security” reasons.

The World Health Organization’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean warned this week that only about 200 trucks a day were entering Gaza, far short of the estimated daily requirement of 600. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, nearly half of all essential medicines are out of stock, while two-thirds of medical supplies have run dry.

Mohammed Salah, founder of the NGO Tech from Palestine, speaking from Deir el-Balah, told Al Jazeera that living conditions had deteriorated sharply since the war on Iran began, with prices for basic supplies having “doubled or more than doubled”.

Meanwhile, a sandstorm recently swept across Gaza tearing through makeshift shelters for tens of thousands of Palestinians already displaced by more than two years of war.

Lebanon death toll from Israeli strikes climbs to almost 900

Israel’s attacks across Lebanon have killed at least 886 people and wounded 2,141 since March 2 when it resumed its war on the country.

In its latest daily update, the Health Ministry reported the rising toll as Israel’s air-and-ground assault on Lebanon continues.

Violence also hit the health sector with medical staff among those killed and injured while responding to attacks, it said. At least 38 health workers have been killed and 69 wounded during the same period.

Israel and Hezbollah engaging in clashes near border: Report

Clashes are taking place between Hezbollah and invading Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, reports Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

An NNA correspondent said the clashes are taking place on the Odaisseh-Taybeh axis, a strategic area that has seen significant military activity during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

“The enemy is attempting to enter Lebanese territory under a barrage shelling and gunfire,” reported NNA. “A number of hostile military vehicles were also observed advancing near the southern border towns of Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras.”

Pope Leo urges journalists to report on war ‘through eyes of victims’

Pope Leo has called on journalists to report on war through the eyes of its victims, pointing out the responsibility of the press to ensure information does not become a source of false narratives.

“In the dramatic circumstances of war, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda,” the head of the Catholic churtch wrote on X.

The pope added that journalists have a duty to verify information carefully so as not to become a mouthpiece for those in power. “They must show the suffering that war always brings to populations, which entails showing the face of war and recounting it through the eyes of victims,” he said.

Israel extends wartime restrictions

The Israeli military’s Homefront Command has extended a ban on in-person learning throughout most of Israel until Wednesday. The restrictions also prohibit large gatherings and work activities in areas that do not have quick access to a bomb shelter.

Israel is bracing itself, not for de-escalation but for more weeks of war

We have seen another Iranian missile attack targeting the central area of Israel, really focusing on Ashkelon, and areas west and southwest of Jerusalem. This includes Bet Shemesh. We keep hearing about that location. There are several air bases and strategic assets near that town.

We saw damage today in Rishon LeZion and other areas in the broader Tel Aviv area, and we also saw some impact sites in the upper Galilee. So, really, damage is being reported all across Israel.

Now, doctors and medical staff are being told by authorities that they must not leave the country, one more indication, rather, that Israel is bracing itself, not for de-escalation but rather for more weeks of war, as we’ve been hearing from military figures and military sources.

Three Palestinians, Including Child, Killed in Gaza as West Bank Violence Escalates

• Three Palestinians were killed and 12 injured in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis.
• Ceasefire violations have killed 673 Palestinians since October, many of them children and women.
• Israeli forces launched large-scale arrest raids across the West Bank, detaining multiple Palestinians.
• Settlers carried out attacks on homes and property, while ambulances were blocked from reaching victims.

Israeli Strike Targets Vehicle in Khan Yunis

Three Palestinians, including a child, were killed and 12 others were injured on Tuesday after Israeli aircraft bombed a vehicle in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Local sources said the strike targeted a white Tucson jeep, killing Yahya Abu Labda, Ihsan Hamed Al-Samiri, and the child Tamer Baraka. The attack is part of ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement through airstrikes, artillery shelling and incursions across Gaza.

Since October 10, Israeli attacks have killed 673 Palestinians, including 199 children, 81 women and 21 elderly people. Children, women and elderly people account for 45.5% of the total victims. More than 1,779 people have been injured, including 526 children, 351 women and 93 elderly people, representing 55.2% of those affected. The total death toll since October 7, 2023, has risen to more than 72,250 Palestinians, with 171,878 wounded.


Large-Scale Detention Campaign across West Bank

Israeli occupation forces carried out a wide-scale arrest campaign overnight and at dawn Tuesday across the occupied West Bank.

In Hebron (Al-Khalil), Israeli occupation forces stormed the Al-Arroub refugee camp and arrested at least 15 young men. They also detained Muhammad Saqr Jaradat and Ayman Abdel Salam during a raid on the town of Sa’ir.

In Ramallah, Israeli occupation forces raided the Al-Amari refugee camp, firing stun grenades and breaking into homes.

Two Palestinians, Hassan Toukhi and Jihad Alqam, were detained in the Umm Al-Sharayet neighborhood of Al-Bireh.

Settler Attacks Intensify

Additionally, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers attacked a home in the Al-Yatmawi area near Beita, south of Nablus, and prevented ambulances from reaching the area.

Another attack targeted homes near Joseph’s Tomb on Amman Street, east of Nablus, where settlers threw stones at residents. Israeli occupation forces also raided homes in the town of Burqa and the Askar refugee camp in Nablus.

In Tulkarm, forces raided the homes of the families of Ashraf Na’alwa and journalist Hamza Hamdan, causing extensive damage. Further arrests were reported, including Muath Shehadeh in Qaffin, north of Tulkarm, and Abdul Rahman Shuaibat in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem.

Blood tech: The UK ambassador, the sex offender, Palantir, and Gaza

Despite its public objections to Israel’s actions, the UK is buying spyware developed and tested on Palestinians.

Ties between the US tech giant Palantir and the United Kingdom government are coming under increased scrutiny following the arrest of former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Palantir, which was a client of Mandelson’s recently-shuttered consultancy company Global Counsel, has been instrumental in supporting Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and continued occupation of the West Bank.

Despite its public criticism of both Palantir and Mandelson, the UK government has entered into extensive contracts with the US tech giant, signing a defence contract worth 240 million pounds ($323m) in January. The contract was awarded to Palantir directly, while another, worth 330 million pounds ($444m) and involving the UK’s Ministry of Health, was awarded in November 2023 following a bidding process. The latter contract’s contents, campaigners say, remain heavily redacted.

Support for Israel

In addition to its role supporting US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has resulted in killings and unlawful deportations, Palantir has partnered extensively with the Israeli military and its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Established in 2003 by a cohort of technology entrepreneurs, including Peter Thiel and current CEO Alex Karp, Palantir opened its first office in Israel in 2015.

According to Open Intel, a platform tracking corporate involvement in the Gaza genocide, Palantir has actively recruited veteran members of Israel’s cyber intelligence wing, Unit 8200. After agreeing to what its website refers to as a “strategic partnership” with Israel in January 2024, the company significantly stepped up its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, combining various data sets from intercepted communications, satellite and other online data to compile targeting, or “kill lists”, for the Israeli military.

While Palantir characterises its technology as an analytical tool rather than a direct targeting system, its integration into Israeli command-and-control workflows has drawn criticism from human rights researchers. Senior figures at the United Nations have also argued that technologies such as Palantir’s materially shape the pace and scale by which the Israeli army is able to target people.

In May last year, responding to heckles from an audience in Washington, DC, over his company’s role in the Gaza genocide, a laughing Karp said that “the primary source of death in Palestine”, where Israel accepts that 70,000 people were killed during its military campaign, “is the fact that Hamas has realised that there are millions and millions of useful idiots”.

Responding to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Palantir UK said: “As a company, Palantir does support Israel. We’ve chosen to support them because of the appalling events of October 7th. And more broadly, we’ve chosen to support them because we believe in supporting the West and its allies – and Israel is an important ally of the West.”

Mandelson ties

Scrutiny over Mandelson, Palantir, and its relationship with the UK government gained new urgency after the ex-ambassador’s arrest in late February over allegations contained in the Epstein files – millions of documents detailing the disgraced financier’s activities – that Mandelson had maintained a relationship with Epstein after his 2008 sex offence conviction and may have shared with Epstein market-sensitive information of financial interest to him.

Numerous UK opposition MPs and trade groups have called for a full review of Palantir, with some lawmakers describing it as “ghastly” and “a highly questionable organisation”. Of concern to many is the visit Mandelson and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid to Palantir’s headquarters in Washington, DC, in February 2025, 11 months before the UK selected the American company in an uncontested bidding process to provide artificial intelligence to its armed services.

Palantir and the NHS

Palantir’s contract with the UK’s health service has also been called into question.

Foxglove and other NGOs, including the human rights-focused pressure group MedAct, have raised specific questions over Palantir initially accepting just 1 pound ($1.35) in March 2020 for an emergency contract to help the National Health Service (NHS) handle the COVID pandemic. The contract allowed Palantir to access NHS data, and the company was eventually handsomely rewarded – the current deal between Palantir and the NHS is worth 23.5 million pounds ($31.6m).

In September 2022, reporters from Bloomberg claimed to have seen documents suggesting a “secret plan” from Palantir to further entrench itself within the NHS without public scrutiny, a tactic typically referred to as “vendor capture”.

An email, cited by Bloomberg, from Palantir’s regional head, Louis Mosley, titled “Buying our way in…!” reportedly outlined a strategy of “hoovering up” smaller rival businesses serving the NHS to “take a lot of ground and take down a lot of political resistance”.

Captured state

Speaking to Bloomberg in February, Healey claimed that Mandelson had no role in securing Palantir’s uncontested contract with the Ministry of Defence and that the decision had been his alone.

While acting as an opposition minister in June 2024, Streeting, who, in private WhatsApp messages to Mandelson in July, conceded that Israel was “committing war crimes before our eyes”, had rejected criticism of Palantir and its access to the NHS data systems, saying such concerns didn’t “wash with me”.

Streeting had told journalists: “There’s been a national decision taken with significant investment of public money. This is of vital importance to patients. Go further, faster.”

“Palantir has explicitly said in the past it aims to become the ‘operating system’ of governments. It’s also been making inroads with the Met Police and at local council level, notably in Coventry [in the UK’s midlands],” Tom Hegarty, the head of communications at Foxglove.

Guy Poran urges international community to demand Israeli govt end settler violence in West Bank

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Guy Poran, former Israeli Air Force Pilot, human rights activist and volunteer for Israeli peace activist group Mistaclim. According to Poran, the situation in the West Bank has entered a dangerous phase, following wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. He says the Israeli army is encouraging the escalating attacks by Israeli settlers, both passively and actively. To foster meaningful change, Poran is calling on the international community "to raise hell" and demand the Israeli government end the violence.

Greater Israel: is Lebanon the first destination?

For more than a million people in Lebanon now sleeping in cars, shelters, refugee camps and the streets, their homes bombed to rubble, the difference between words may feel immaterial.

But under international law, the difference is monumental.

Under the Geneva Convention armies are obliged to give advance warning of attacks that may affect civilian populations. But they are strictly prohibited from forcibly displacing civilians– unless it is for their own security. Even in this case, they must ensure there is satisfactory shelter, and allow civilians to return as soon as possible.

In other words, an evacuation is a legal requirement– but forced displacement is a war crime.

US envoys meet Hamas in Cairo to salvage fragile Gaza truce

Washington engages with the Palestinian group as the regional war strains post-war plans and the battered October ‘ceasefire’ that Israel continues to violate.


_{A mosque, destroyed during Israel's two-year genocidal war on Gaza, is surrounded by tents for displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, February 15}

In a devastated enclave where more than two million Palestinians remain crammed into a shrinking strip of land under the overwhelming shadow of Israeli military occupation and bombardment, daily survival is tethered to a fragile October “ceasefire”.

But as Israeli and US bombs rain down on Iran, and Tehran retaliates across the region, that battered truce faces a breaking point, prompting an unprecedented diplomatic manoeuvre: direct talks between United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” and Hamas.

Envoys from the new body, personally headed by Trump to oversee post-war Gaza, but with more far-reaching designs, met with Hamas representatives in the Egyptian capital over the weekend, according to the Reuters news agency.

The meetings aimed to safeguard the “ceasefire”, which has been under even more severe strain since the regional war began on February 28.

Following the talks, Israel announced it would partially reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday. The crossing, Gaza’s sole pedestrian lifeline outside direct Israeli control, was shut when the Iran offensive began.

Despite the diplomatic push, violence in the enclave persists. Israeli strikes on Sunday killed at least 13 Palestinians including two boys, a pregnant woman, and nine police officers, serving as a stark reminder of Israel’s all-encompassing military grip on the territory.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/3/17/us-envoys-meet-hamas-in-cairo-to-salvage-fragile-gaza-truce

Gaza’s Rafah crossing opens amid Iran war

The Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza has reopened for the first time since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

Israel had closed the border crossing a day after the joint Israeli-United States attacks on Iran.

“Several necessary security adjustments have been implemented, including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Rafah Crossing, until further notice,” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) had said in a statement on March 1.

The Rafah crossing is considered vital for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of critically ill patients.

One killed, one seriously injured in Israeli attack on Gaza City

One Palestinian has been killed and another wounded in an Israeli air attack on a gathering in the east of Gaza City, an Al Jazeera team on the ground and the Wafa news agency are reporting.

The attack took place in the Tuffah neighbourhood, Wafa reported, adding that the wounded man’s injuries were serious.

Two Palestinians killed in Israeli drone attack on Gaza City

Two Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike on Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, sources at al-Shifa Hospital have told Al Jazeera. 

Colombian president says Gaza was an ‘experiment’ for wider destruction

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says the war in Gaza was an “experiment” designed to intimidate the Global South and is now spreading, warning that the world is sliding into “barbarism.”

Greta Thunberg, Mandla Mandela announce new aid flotilla for Gaza

The Global Sumud Flotilla has announced plans to send its “largest mission yet” to war-torn Gaza, saying 100 boats will be dispatched alongside “land mobilisations”.

Past participants in the flotilla, including Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, shared a video on social media to announce the new mission.

The post said it will include “representatives from over 100 countries, all united to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza and the complicity that enables it”.