UNICEF say life-saving supplies for children must enter Gaza

The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, has called for life-saving health supplies to be allowed into Gaza.

“Without aid entering the Gaza Strip, roughly 1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive – yet again,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa regional director, after a four-day mission to the West Bank and Gaza.

Beigbeder said there were more than 180,000 doses of childhood vaccines waiting outside Gaza, as well as 20 ventilators for neonatal intensive care units.

“Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip,” Beigbeder said. “Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip.”

UK declines to condemn deadly Israeli attack on British charity in Gaza

As we reported yesterday, the UK-based Al Khair Foundation has said that eight of its “dedicated humanitarian aid workers” were “killed in violation of the agreed ceasefire in a drone airstrike” in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza on Saturday.

London-based media outlet Middle East Eye (MEE) is reporting that a spokesperson from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office declined to condemn the Israeli drone attack.

Instead, the office said it was “deeply saddened” by the attack, according to MEE journalist Imran Mullah.

“It is vital that – in all scenarios – civilians are protected, including journalists and humanitarian organisations, who must be enabled to deliver their essential work in safety,” the spokesperson told MEE.

“It is deeply saddening to hear of further loss of life in Gaza, and the UK wants to see the ceasefire continue,” the spokesperson added.

Main events on March 16th

Israeli negotiators in Cairo as Netanyahu tries to fire Shin Bet chief

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that an Israeli delegation is currently in the Egyptian capital meeting with mediators to try and bridge some of those gaps between Israel and Hamas.

They’ve been at an impasse over disagreements about phase two of the deal.

The Israelis say they’ve accepted a proposal, outlined by the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, that calls for an additional 50-day pause in the fighting, in exchange for half of the Israeli captives still held in Gaza, both alive and dead.

Hamas has said that they want to move forward with phase two, which would ultimately mean an end of the war.

However, that’s not something Israel is willing to commit to.

In another turn of events, the Israeli prime minister says that he intends to fire the head of the Shin Bet – that’s Israel’s internal security agency – saying he doesn’t trust him to carry out his duties.

The attorney general has penned a letter to the Israeli premier, saying that the legality of all of this needs to be assessed before Netanyahu can make a decision like this.

Nonetheless, within Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, this is something that is being applauded.

The Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar, has responded, saying that he intends to carry out his duties until all of the captives are brought back from Gaza.

Israeli forces kill two people in Lebanon

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that Israeli forces launched air raids on the village of Ainata in southern Lebanon, killing at least two people.

The raid was followed by more Israeli shelling and drone attacks in southern Lebanon, the agency reported.

This included the towns of Yaroun and Kfar Kila.

Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in November, but has continued near-daily attacks on southern Lebanon, killing dozens of people.

US raids hit hijacked Israel-linked ship in Yemen

We’ve been reporting on the US’s latest raids on the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The official Saba news agency is now reporting that the raids hit “the command post of the detained Israeli ship Galaxy Leader”.

Saba, citing a military official, said the US targeted the ship with two air strikes.

Houthi fighters hijacked the Galaxy Leader in November 2023, detaining its 25-member crew, who hail from the Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, for 430 days. They were released in January after the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect.

The ship, meanwhile, has remained in the Hodeidah port. It is owned by a British company that is partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar, according to The Times of Israel.


_{People ride a boat near the Galaxy Leader commercial ship, seized by Yemen’s Houthis in November 2023, off the coast of as-Salif, Yemen on December 5, 2023}

Houthis claim second attack on US warship

The rebel group says it attacked the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier for the second time in the past 24 hours, launching “a number of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles” at the warship.

The assault “lasted for several hours” and “succeeded in thwarting a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country”, the group said.

There was no immediate comment from the US.

As we’ve been reporting, the Houthis claimed another missile and drone attack on the USS Harry Truman earlier on Sunday.

The US dismissed the claim, with an official telling Reuters that US forces shot down 11 Houthi drones, none of which came close to the aircraft carrier, and also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen.


US attacks hit cancer facility, cotton shop in Yemen

We have more on the destruction from US’s attacks on Sunday.

The official Saba news agency, citing local authorities, is reporting that US forces carried out a number of air strikes on a cancer facility that is being built in the city of Saada on Sunday, causing “widespread destruction”.

Mohammed Awad, the governor of Saada, told a meeting of local officials that several residential neighbourhoods were also hit.

“He pointed out that the US enemy’s targeting of residential neighborhoods and civilian facilities, including the cancer tumor building, confirms the state of failure, enemy confusion [and] reveals America’s ugly and criminal face,” Saba reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture also condemned the targeting of a cotton shop in the Zabid district of Hodeidah govenrorate, according to Saba.

The ministry said the targeting of civilian infrastructure is aimed at doubling the human suffering in Yemen.