Main events on March 11

• Palestinians in Gaza mourned the six people killed in Israel’s ongoing attacks on the territory as the Health Ministry identified one of another four people killed in a separate Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank as a 58-year-old woman.
• The Palestinian Islamic Jihad welcomed the Houthis’ decision to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping after Israel ignored the Yemeni rebel group’s ultimatum to end the blockade on Gaza within four days.
• The United Nations said relief agencies in Gaza are rationing all aid, including fuel, as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) slammed the Israeli blockade as “outrageous” and said that “humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip in war”.
• Steve Witkoff, the US’s Middle East envoy, is in the Qatari capital, Doha, according to media reports, as Hamas announced the start of a new round of negotiations on the Gaza ceasefire and captives exchanges deal.
• Israel’s Defence Minister Gideon Saar said Israeli troops will remain in the areas that they had occupied in the Syrian Golan Heights, following Bashar al-Assad’s fall, for an “unlimited period”.
• Israel returned five Lebanese citizens it took captive as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his country has agreed to hold talks, mediated by France and the US, to demarcate the Israeli border with Lebanon.

Houthis say ‘any Israeli vessel’ in waters off Yemen again a target

The Yemeni rebel group is warning shippers that “any Israeli vessel” travelling through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is now a target.

The statement follows a four-day deadline set by the rebels for Israel to resume aid shipments into Gaza.

“We hope it is understood that the actions taken by the [Houthi military] … stem from a deep sense of religious, humanitarian and moral responsibility toward the oppressed Palestinian people and aim to pressure the Israeli usurper entity to reopen the crossings to the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of aid, including food and medical supplies,” the statement said.

It described the warning as taking hold in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.

The Houthis added that the “ban will remain in effect until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, is allowed to enter”.

The rebel group had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war on Gaza. During that period, the group sank two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa.

Save the Children decries cuts in foreign aid

The charity said governments around the world are cutting foreign aid budgets, forcing the suspension of lifesaving programmes for malnourished children across the globe, including in Gaza.

It said that nearly all of the enclave’s 1.1 million children face “critical food insecurity” and that aid cuts mean reducing treatment for malnourished children mid-recovery.

One Palestinian woman who gave birth 11 months into Israel’s war on Gaza said she did not receive adequate medical assistance during her childbirth and struggled to buy food for her daughter.

“The war took everything—I ended up having to beg on the streets just to get clothes for her. I don’t know how I survived. There was no food,” the woman was quoted as saying. “She was malnourished, and I couldn’t buy milk for her. But I found Save the Children, and they helped me.”

Israeli police again raid Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem

Israeli police have briefly detained the co-owner of the prominent Education Bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem and confiscated more than 50 books after raiding the shop for a second time in less than a month.

The Times of Israel said the police raided the store after a caller reported seeing “books containing inciting content” and arrested Imad Muna to “verify his identity and the details of the store”.

Muna was released hours after his detention and most of the books have now been returned, according to his brother, Mahmoud.

Muna’s son, Ahmad, said the police had seized books by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé and Rashid Khalidi, among others.

During the raid in February, police arrested Ahmad and Mahmoud Muna after accusing them of selling books that incited terrorism, including a children’s colouring book entitled From the Jordan to the Sea.

BREAKING | Israeli police have once again raided the famous Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, confiscating dozens of books and arresting Imad Muna, one of the owners. His son Ahmad reports that officers seized books by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and Rashid Khalidi, among… https://t.co/wsnwzlSSdx pic.twitter.com/lJVjso8VOz

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 11, 2025

Israeli forces kill Palestinian child in central Gaza: Reports

Israeli forces stationed in Gaza have shot and killed a Palestinian girl in central Deir el-Balah, according to the Quds News Network and the Anadolu news agency.

The outlets cited medical sources.

The identity and age of the victim have not been confirmed, and the Israeli military is yet to comment on the incident.

Death toll from Israel’s attacks on Gaza rises to 8

The Israeli military has committed numerous violations of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza over the past 24 hours, killing at least eight Palestinians in separate attacks.

Here’s a breakdown:

Israeli military carries out air attacks near Gaza City: Reports

Israeli forces are carrying out “bombing operations” east of Gaza City in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Information Center and the Quds News Network.

The target of the attacks is not immediately clear. No casualties have been reported so far.

Israeli forces bulldoze streets in Qabatiya

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had stormed the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.

The Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center have now published footage showing Israeli military bulldozers tearing up streets and destroying infrastructure in the town.

Israeli forces also arrested a Palestinian man the Shuweika suburb of the city of Tulkarem, as well as a boy of unspecified age in the town of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

جرافات الاحتلال تواصل تدمير الشوارع في بلدة قباطية جنوب جنين pic.twitter.com/5SfGfjDdjE

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) March 12, 2025

Houthi leader says operations against Israel now in force

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Yemeni rebel group, says that it will make good on its threats to attack ships it deems as having links to Israel.

“The decision to ban enemy ships from sailing in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea has entered into force”, al-Houthi said.

Last week, the Houthis issued an ultimatum to Israel, giving it four days to resume the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, or face renewed attacks.

The Houthis carried out similar attacks throughout the course of Israel’s war on Gaza on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

“Any Israeli vessel crossing the declared area of ​​operations will be targeted”, he said.

Total economic collapse as basic supplies run out in besieged Gaza

For the 11th day in a row, people are basically running out of options. More than half of the charitable kitchens in the Gaza Strip are closing down right now because they are running out of basic supplies and goods to simply prepare meals for people who are largely fasting for the month of Ramadan.

So people are being forced to break their fast on whatever they are able to get their hands on – nothing fancy, just whatever is available, basic stuff that soon enough are going to run out as well.

The markets inside the Gaza Strip are depleted; and whatever is available is limited to very small amount, unable to cover the greater demand created by these months of devastation and destruction and total blockade on the crossings.

Things are also too expensive for the people to afford, as for more than 15 months they have not had the financial capability and not been on a regular payroll, whether it’s the private or public sector.

We’re looking at the total economic collapse and economic suffocation across the Gaza Strip. Local leaders and community organisations are describing what’s going on as a collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Gaza’s death toll rises

The Health Ministry in Gaza has just released its latest report on the number of people killed and wounded by Israel’s war on the territory.

In a statement, it said a total of 12 killed – five newly killed, seven bodies recovered – were recorded and 14 wounded people arrived in hospitals during the past 24 hours.

This brought the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 to at least 48,515, with 111,941 others wounded, the ministry added.

Many victims remain under the rubble, while the Government Media Office in Gaza has put the death toll at more than 61,000, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are now presumed dead.

Palestinian victims of Israel sexual abuse testify at UN

Palestinians who say they suffered brutal beatings and sexual abuse in Israeli detention and at the hands of Israeli settlers have testified about their ordeals at the UN this week.

“I was humiliated and tortured,” said Said Abdel Fattah, a 28-year-old nurse detained in November 2023 near Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, where he worked.

Fattah gave his testimony from Gaza via video link to a public hearing and spoke through an interpreter.

He described being stripped naked in the cold, suffering beatings, threats of rape and other abuse over the next two months as he was shuttled between overcrowded detention facilities.

Mohamed Matar, an occupied West Bank resident, said he suffered hours of torture at the hands of security agents and settlers and the Israeli police refused to intervene.

Israeli military investigates soldiers’ use of Palestinians as human shields: Report

The Israeli military is investigating its soldiers’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields during operations in Gaza, it has told CNN.

It is the military’s first admission that there is “reasonable suspicion” this could have taken place, the US news channel reported.

“In several cases, the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opened investigations after reasonable suspicion arose regarding the use of Palestinians for military missions during the operations,” the Israeli military was quoted as saying by CNN.

While the scale and scope are still being investigated, the practice has likely occurred across the besieged Strip, the outlet reported.

An Israeli soldier told CNN last year that his unit had forced a Palestinian man to enter a building before troops.

“If there are any booby traps, they will explode and not us,” he told the outlet at the time, a practice so common the Israeli military calls it the “mosquito protocol”, CNN reported.

Al Jazeera has documented several occurrences of Palestinians being used as human shields in the occupied West Bank:

‘I have never seen anything close to what I have seen in Gaza’, says UN official

“I have never seen anything close to what I have seen in Gaza,” the veteran humanitarian told Al Jazeera.

“This past year for me has been more painful than the 34 years that I have worked in the humanitarian field. I’ve never been to a place where everything is needed, I’ve never been to a place where bathrooms were the topic [of discussion] of everyone,” he told me.

“Women told me many times if they have access to safe drinking water, they don’t drink it – even pregnant women – because going to the bathroom is an agony, is a journey of them that could end up in a catastrophe,” said Hadi, describing Gaza as “two million sad stories”.

“I remember meeting an elderly gentleman at the beginning of my assignment there who basically told me, ‘Listen, you’re getting this wrong; you need to look at us as zombies. We are two million zombies, the family ties are broken, community ties are broken, society is broken,'” recalled Hadi.

“At the beginning, really, I didn’t understand it. I thought I had enough experience to address the situation in Gaza, and then I realised really I had a lot to learn in Gaza.”

Blockade ’11 days too long’: UN official decries Israeli aid stoppage in Gaza

“Eleven days is already 11 days too long,” says UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, referring to the number of days Israel has cut off aid from Gaza so far.

Fletcher said since the ceasefire began in late January, the UN had managed to make “progress in feeding many of those millions who needed the food [and] getting medicine in”.

He warned that “a humanitarian crisis” could emerge once again.

Fletcher added that the United Nations is also aiding communities who have been displaced in the occupied West Bank due to ongoing Israeli military operations.

Hundreds protest for release of Mahmoud Khalil in New York

Activists in America organised a protest today in front of a court in New York City, demanding the release of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and is threatened with deportation for organising protests supporting Palestine at Columbia University.

The protesters chanted slogans against what they described as the suppression of a student movement and freedom of expression in universities, calling for his release and his return to the university.

Khalil’s defence team held a news conference among the protesters, giving an update on their continued efforts to secure his legal rights and return him to his pregnant wife.

2047 ???

Trump: ‘No one will be expelled from Gaza’

The US president says that no Palestinians will be expelled from the besieged Gaza Strip, even as he continues to pursue his plan to take over the coastal enclave.

“Nobody is expelling any Palestinians,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question as he hosted Irish leader Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.

The president’s comments come after Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday that Tel Aviv would open a new “Emigration Authority” office under the Defence Ministry to manage the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, according to multiple media reports. He said the plan has the support of the Trump administration.

“Various officials in the administration told me again and again, ‘We will not allow 2 million Nazis to live just beyond the fence,’” he said, referring to Palestinians in Gaza.

“Not too long ago, it was taboo to speak about people leaving Gaza, but now the people who were crazy are the most realistic.” “Not only is it realistic, but it’s the only plan that’s realistic”, he added, according to the Washington Post newspaper.

The highly controversial proposal comes after Trump proposed in February taking ownership of Gaza, removing Palestinians from their homeland and re-settling them elsewhere. The plan has been widely panned by nations around the world, and criticised as a form of ethnic cleansing.

Hamas welcomes Trump’s apparent retreat on Gaza displacement

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem welcomed Trump’s apparent backtracking of the call to displace people in Gaza.

Qassem urged the US president to refrain from aligning with the vision of the “extreme Zionist right”.

He'll be back to his ethnic cleansing plan tomorrow..

Events from March 12th

At least one person killed in Israeli air attack on Syria’s Damascus: Reports

Israeli forces have struck a building in Damascus’s Dummar neighbourhood, according to Syria’s state news agency.

The attack, carried out with two missiles, killed at least one person, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

قـ..صف صهيوںي استـ هدف مبنى في مشروع دمر بدمشق pic.twitter.com/oF4dmM4cls

— AlHadeel News (@news_hadeel) March 13, 2025

Israel confirms Damascus attack

In a statement, the Israeli army claims to have hit a “command centre belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad”.

Separately, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attack shows Israel “will not allow Syria to become a threat to the state of Israel”. “There will be no immunity for Islamic terrorism against Israel – whether in Damascus or anywhere else,” said Katz.

Syrian authorities deny PIJ used sites attacked by Israel in Damascus

We have heard two loud explosions almost at the same time as Syria’s constitutional declaration was being signed by the president of the country.

Then, we received videos of two locations hit by Israeli air attacks. Israel said they were centres being used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However, the authorities here deny that.

There are unconfirmed reports of one person having been killed and several injured.

Since the attack, we have seen Israeli aircraft flying in circles above Damascus for more than two hours. This is definitely a show of force. The Israelis want to make sure that the new leadership in the country is aware that Israel is monitoring them.

Israel targeted empty home of PIJ leader Ziad Nakhaleh: Report

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member at the scene of the Israeli air strike in Syria’s capital Damascus has told The Associated Press news agency that the apartment that was targeted was the home of the group’s leader Ziad Nakhaleh.

Ismail Sindak said the apartment had been empty for years, adding that Nakhaleh is not in Syria. Asked whether anyone was killed in the strike, Sindak said that “the house was empty.”

It was not immediately clear where Nakhaleh is but he is believed to spend his time between Lebanon, Iran and Syria.

As we have reported earlier, the Israeli military said its air force conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command centre belonging to the PIJ in Damascus.


_{Civil defence members stands near a damaged site, after Israeli aircraft targeted a building on the edge of Damascus, Syria, March 13}

Syrian official says three civilians injured in Israeli strike

Abdulrahman al-Dabbagh, the director of security in Damascus, says the Israeli strike in the Syrian capital earlier today destroyed a building and injured three civilians, including a woman, who is in critical condition.

Syria’s AlIkhbaria TV quoted al-Dabbagh as saying that the building housed an “office that has been abandoned” since the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad in December of last year.

The Associated Press had reported that the Israeli attack targeted a home belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhaleh.

Israeli strikes target in eastern Lebanon

Al Jazeera Arabic and several local news outlets report Israeli bombardment around the village of Jennata in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.

The same area was also targeted by Israel last week.

Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah site in Lebanon

We reported earlier that Israel has launched strikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Now, the Israeli military has confirmed the attack, saying that it targeted “infrastructure at a site for the production and storage of strategic weapons” by Hezbollah.

Israel has been regularly carrying out attacks in Lebanon despite the ceasefire it reached with Hezbollah in November of last year.

Israeli occupation an ‘assault’ on Lebanese sovereignty, says PM

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says Israel’s continuing military occupation of parts of south Lebanon is an “assault on our sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Salam said during an Iftar meal that the Lebanese army will continue to deploy in south Lebanon and cooperate with UN peacekeepers, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

He added that the country will “double down” on its political and diplomatic efforts to garner Arab and international support to pressure Israel to complete its withdrawal.

In an implicit reference to Hezbollah, Nawaf also said one of the government’s top priorities is to “reclaim war and peace decisions” and to exclusively hold weapons.