We know of at least five overnight raids in the occupied West Bank. The most consequential of those was in Nur Shams near Tulkarem in the north of the territory. The Israeli military used five of its enormous bulldozers in that raid.

Those bulldozers are specifically designed and used to cause massive destruction, dragging up streets and drains and destroying houses. It’s often a sort of collective punishment the Israelis inflict on these refugee camps where some armed groups are operating.

The Israeli military is also still looking for a gunman or gunmen who opened fire near an illegal outpost that the Israelis call Homesh. All settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, but there are some that even Israelis consider illegal themselves.

This particular settlement had been evacuated by the Israelis, but settlers went back there. It seems Palestinian gunmen opened fire around the settlement last night. As Israeli soldiers looked for the gunmen, seven of the soldiers were injured by an improved explosive device. There is still a manhunt going on for those involved.


More provocations

Israeli settlers desecrate tombstones at Islamic cemetery

#شاهد
مستــوطنون يحطمون شواهد قبور في مقبرة باب الرحمة المحاذية للسور الشرقي للمسجد الأقصى المبارك pic.twitter.com/FQXiytuteP

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) March 9, 2024

Upcoming UN report finds ‘drastic acceleration’ in settlements

Israel’s human rights violations against the Palestinian population must cease immediately.

The new @UNHumanRights report highlights the dramatic increase in the intensity, severity & regularity of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/fFDTlH68eg

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) March 9, 2024

In exclusive video, Israeli officer brags about killing unarmed civilian in Gaza City

Overnight, Israeli attacks on Rafah city and central areas in Gaza caused further civilian casualties. They have been rushed to the remaining health facilities either in Rafah City or the central areas. They are under the threat of losing their life in the central areas, where Al-Aqsa Hospital is overwhelmed with no medical supplies sufficient to treat people properly.

In overcrowded Rafah, overnight strikes on a residential complex not only caused a large number of injuries but also further internal displacement. Wounded people who arrived at the Najjar Hospital in Rafah are under the threat of not receiving the necessary treatment, given the shortage of medical supplies and staff. The medical staff has been exhausted, working 24 hours and seven days a week for the last five months. It is a very serious situation at the medical level.

In the northern part of Gaza, we are seeing children dying in this enforced starvation and dehydration due to the famine spreading. Three more children died at al-Shifa Hospital, as a result of starvation and dehydration, increasing the number of such deaths to 23.

_{A view of damage after Israel targeted Burj al-Masri building in Rafah, on Sunday}

Israeli strikes kill 82 people in Gaza over past day: Ministry

Palestinians salvage belongings from bombed residential building in Rafah

_{Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, Saturday}

The mayor of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, says three in four wells have been destroyed by the Israeli army, despite looming starvation amid a severe lack of water and food. Mazen al-Najjar told Al Jazeera the prices of food items have skyrocketed and remain unaffordable past their expiry date.

The mayor added that airdropped aid is insufficient to meet the needs of the population of northern Gaza and called for the opening of border crossings to let urgently needed supplies in.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have published a video on X, showing the aftermath of Israel’s air strike on the Burj al-Masri building in Rafah, southern Gaza. Several people have been injured, according to preliminary reports, and have been taken to the Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

We’re getting confirmed reports from Gaza City that during a routine aid airdrop, aid packages fell directly on crowds of people who had gathered at the drop site. The packages came down so fast that they hit some of the people. There are reports of multiple injured people being taken to al-Shifa Hospital.

This is the second time there have been casualties from airdrops. Yesterday, five people were killed in northern Gaza when parachutes on some airdropped aid packages malfunctioned and the packages fell into a crowd.

At least 10 killed in Nuseirat camp after Israeli air strike hits residential block

Israeli forces have bombarded a neighbourhood in Khan Younis close to the border with Israel, hitting al-Riad mosque, which was heavily damaged by the attack, according to the footage obtained by Al Jazeera. Rescue teams have yet to determine if there were any casualties.

A huge, terrifying attack has hit al-Mashala neighbourhood in the city of Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. At least six ambulances have rushed to the scene and we are hearing reports of many casualties and wounded. Israeli tanks also continue to hit the eastern outskirts of Deir el-Balah.

Hezbollah says it struck an Israeli army base with a Burkan rocket earlier today. The Israeli military, however, says the projectile “fell in an open area” near Yiftah, a kibbutz in northern Israel. Israeli forces responded with a retaliatory strike towards the launch site in Lebanon, an Israeli military statement added.

The cross-border attacks follow Hezbollah strikes on five Israeli positions yesterday, including in Kfar Chouba on the eastern side of the border and Jal al-Alam on the western side.

Isareli raid destroys house in Lebanon’s Majdal Zoun

Israel strikes home in Lebanon’s Kafra

Hezbollah claims hitting Israeli military barracks in occupied Shebaa Farms

Erdogan has compared Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders with “Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin”, saying their “crimes in Gaza” have turned them into “Nazis”, reports Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. Giving a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan also took aim at Muslim nations he believes have failed the Palestinians’ cause, saying the “Islamic world of two billion people has not fulfilled its duty”.

Turkey, for its part, he said, “firmly backs” Palestinian group Hamas and would do everything possible to hold Israel to account under international law for its “massacres”. Erdogan has been one of Israel’s harshest critics during the war in Gaza, pushing the countries’ once warming ties to a low point.

Palestinians in Gaza increasingly have no shelter or food, said Salameh Maarouf, head of the enclave’s media office. Five months into the war, 80 percent of the homes in Gaza have been rendered “uninhabitable” said Maarouf, while 120,000 families are suffering from famine.

Gaza’s Government Media Office has said the destruction caused by Israel in the enclave since October 7 amounts to more than $30bn due to the damage to homes, facilities, and other infrastructure, including road, electricity, water, and sewage networks.

Several thousand protesters have gathered in the centre of the British capital, demanding ceasefire in the besieged coastal enclave as the Israeli war enters its 154th day. Protesters were expected to march from Hyde Park to the US Embassy on the southern bank of the River Thames.

A US charity says it is loading aid for Gaza onto a boat in Cyprus, preparing for the first shipment to the war-ravaged territory along the new maritime corridor the EU hopes will open this weekend. The Spanish-flagged vessel Open Arms docked three weeks ago in the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, the closest EU member state to the enclave.

“World Central Kitchen teams are in Cyprus loading pallets of humanitarian aid onto a boat headed to northern Gaza,” the charity said. “We have been preparing for weeks alongside our trusted NGO partner Open Arms for the opening of a maritime aid corridor that would allow us to scale our efforts in the region,” it added

“The endeavor to establish a humanitarian maritime corridor in Gaza is making progress, and our tugboat stands prepared to embark at a moment’s notice, laden with tonnes of food, water, and vital supplies for Palestinian civilians,” Open Arms said on social media platform X.

_{The ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group is seen docked as it prepares to ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, at Larnaca harbor, Cyprus, on Friday}

The Spanish-flagged vessel Open Arms will depart from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, within the next day to deliver 200 tonnes of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. Veronica Alfonsi, president of the aid organisation Open Arms Italy, told Al Jazeera the ship contains rice, wheat and canned tuna, but no water or medicine.

Alfonsi said the humanitarian relief contained on the vessel has already been cleared by Israel but did not provide additional details. The NGO declined to disclose the maritime route and the delivery method citing security reasons.


200 tons is about 7 to 10 trucks worth of delivery (or 11 planes) and could feed 133 thousand people for one single day, about 25% of the starving population in Northern Gaza.

It's a 15 hour trip from Cyprus, so will be tomorrow to see how they will offload that aid as Gaza City Port is just a shallow port for small fishing boats.



The BBC makes a big deal it of it anyway



Esther Camps, Open Arms coordinator, says the NGO ship docked in Larnaca, Cyprus, will deliver a small quantity of food aid to Gaza that will open the way for more to come in. “We are a pilot project to open this [maritime] corridor to allow bigger vessels and other actors with more capacity to do the same,” Camps told Al Jazeera from aboard the Open Arms, which is expected to leave for Gaza in the next day.

The ship will reach a barge near a “tiny port”, the coordinator said, without providing further details. The organisation World Central Kitchen will then unload the cargo using cranes and load it onto trucks for distribution across the Strip.

Asked whether Israel has given any security guarantees, Camps said the ship would be monitored at all times. “We go under our own responsibility but we know they are going to be around and always keep an eye on us,” she said.

“We are excited and a little nervous because we are going to do a big thing, all the world will be looking at us and we want to do it well.”


So weeks to prepare a ship to ferry 8 trucks worth of aid to Gaza, that then has to be unloaded onto trucks... Bless them for doing something, but it only emphasizes how ridiculous this now hailed maritime corridor is while aid trucks are piled up at Rafah which could easily use the military roads in the buffer zone along the fence to travel to Northern Gaza.

This is at Gaza city and there is a double road going all along the 1950 Armistice agreement line

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Israeli authorities are refusing to disclose any information related to their arrest.

“The longer it takes to not know about their fate, the more our concern grows. This is especially in light of the testimonies that are surfacing about torture and executions carried out against Gaza detainees since the ground invasion began,” it said.

“We are not surprised by media reports that 27 Gaza detainees have died in detention, but rather constituted additional evidence of the level of horrific crimes carried out by the occupation.”

Israeli military confirms high-ranking commando killed in Gaza

Hamas identifies 7 captives killed in Gaza in Israeli attacks

Israeli military says plans approved for ‘continuation of war’

הרמטכ״ל ור׳ השב״כ קיימו היום אישור תוכניות להמשך המלחמה בפיקוד הדרום, יחד עם מפקד פיקוד הדרום, סגן ר׳ השב״כ ומפקדים נוספים pic.twitter.com/ts5Tk4k8D6

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 9, 2024

A joint patrol of the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, came under attack west of the town of Aita al-Shab. The Lebanese news agency NNA said shots were fired from the Israeli settlement of Shtola, near the border, this morning.

Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UNIFIL said in a statement, “a Lebanese army vehicle was hit during the patrol. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said during a speech marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day in Egypt that rebuilding Gaza after the end of the war could cost more than $90bn. Much of the besieged enclave has been reduced to rubble as a result of five months of non-stop Israeli attacks, and Gaza’s government says 80 percent of homes are now rendered uninhabitable.

During his speech, el-Sisi also emphasised Egypt’s position that it would not allow Palestinians to be forcibly displaced into Egyptian territory by Israel. “We will not assist the separation of Palestinians from their land,” he said, adding Cairo is ready to keep the Rafah crossing open to get aid in.

Infant and 20-year-old Gaza woman die of starvation

Hezbollah claimed more attacks on Israeli positions including “targeting a Zionist military force” in Upper Galilee’s Mount Adir. In the area of Karantina, the armed Lebanese group said it targeted a unit of Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah carried out at least nine attacks on Israeli positions on Saturday.

It largely uses rockets, antitank guided missiles, and heavy artillery to target Israeli positions. The armed group didn’t specify what weaponry was fired this time. Sirens sounded in Uper Galilee over the past few hours with reports in Israeli media indicating a suspected drone intrusion from southern Lebanon.

At least five people have been killed and nine injured after the latest Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon hit a home. “The attack against a house in the Khirbet Selm area killed a family of four”, including a couple and their two children as well as another person, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said, adding that the mother was pregnant.

The strike demolished the house, wounding at least nine others who lived nearby, it said. Border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has gradually escalated since October with dozens of civilians killed in Lebanon.

_{Smoke billows following an Israeli air raid in the southern Lebanese city town of Ghaziyeh}