What we know
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plan for a ground offensive on Rafah is ratcheting up tensions with the Biden administration, which has repeatedly warned against a military incursion into the city where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering. Biden has backed a sharply critical speech by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said Netanyahu has "lost his way."
- Hamas presented a new proposal to mediators, according to Reuters, that softened its demand for a permanent cease-fire, which could be negotiated after an initial release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israel has called the proposal "unrealistic," but has sent a delegation to Doha for further talks.
- The United Nations warns of a rapid rise in acute malnutrition in northern Gaza, as Palestinians in the enclave enter Ramadan, normally a celebratory month of fasting and feasting, on the brink of starvation.
- A private aid ship has arrived off the coast of Gaza, towing a barge containing 200 tons of flour, rice and protein. While any food is welcome, aid organizations say, a maritime route is ultimately a "distraction," as it cannot bring the volume of aid that trucks can. The U.N. says there is enough food in the aid trucks waiting at checkpoints outside Gaza to feed the entire population.
- The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 31,500, according to the Health Ministry, with another 73,500 injured. The Israeli military said at least 247 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began.
UAE announces ninth aid airdrop operation in northern Gaza
The United Arab Emirates announced the completion of its ninth airdrop of humanitarian aid in northern Gaza today.
Thirty-three tons of food and "relief supplies" were airdropped in the north of the strip in the joint operation between the UAE Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force, the UAE Ministry of Defense said in a statement on X.
The UAE has airdropped a total of 405 tons of aid in Gaza as part of the operation "Birds of Goodness."
"This generous humanitarian gesture reflects the determination of the United Arab Emirates and the Arab Republic of Egypt to provide all forms of humanitarian support to the Palestinian brethren and to confront the challenges in order to alleviate their daily suffering," the ministry wrote.
WHO director-general 'gravely concerned' about reports of Israeli military expansion into Rafah
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus is "gravely concerned" about reports of an imminent Israeli military expansion into Rafah.
"Further escalation of violence in this densely populated area would lead to many more deaths and suffering," Tedros wrote on X.
Over a million Palestinians have been displaced to Rafah.
"There are no fully functional, safe health facilities that they can reach elsewhere in #Gaza," he wrote. "Many people are too fragile, hungry and sick to be moved again."
Tedros appealed to Israel not to move forward with the military expansion.
"This humanitarian catastrophe must not be allowed to worsen," he wrote.
Situation in Gaza 'catastrophic & deteriorates by the minute,' UNRWA says
The situation in Gaza is "catastrophic & deteriorates by the minute," said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
UNRWA teams are working to provide aid to families in need in the enclave, including flour, dairy, water, medicine and hygiene kits.
"Safe, unimpeded & sustained access across the #GazaStrip is needed NOW," the organization said on X.
Almost 9,000 Palestinian women killed since start of war in Gaza, Palestine Red Crescent Society says
Almost 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
The total death toll in Gaza has surpassed 31,500, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
26-year-old Palestinian dies in Israeli custody, advocacy organizations say
A 26-year-old Palestinian man who was detained in December has died in Israeli custody, according to a statement from the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Juma Abu Ghanima, from Negev, died five days after he was transferred from his cell in Eshel Prison to one of the prison's hospitals, according to the advocacy groups. Abu Ghanima was arrested due to "his resistance to the occupation," the groups said.
According to the organizations, "the number of captive martyrs who died after October 7 in the occupation prisons and camps as a result of torture and medical crimes rises to at least (13) martyrs."
Over 9,000 Palestinians are currently in Israeli prisons, per the groups.
German Air Force airdrops aid for the first time in northern Gaza
The German Air Force airdropped aid in northern Gaza for the first time Saturday morning.
The joint mission between Germany, France and Jordan airdropped four pallets of aid containing one ton of food each, including rice and flour, according to the German Foreign Office.
"More #airdrops will follow in the next days. The Franco-German team remains on the ground and is coordinating closely with our Jordanian partners. And we are continuing to work on getting more aid to #Gaza by land," the office said on X.
"Every package counts. But airdrops are not enough," the office continued in a thread. "To supply the people in #Gaza, the Israeli government urgently needs to open more border crossings, especially to allow more aid deliveries over land by truck."
Menstruating women and girls using torn pieces of cloth as sanitary pads in Gaza, U.N. aid organization says
Many menstruating women and girls are using torn pieces of cloth as sanitary pads in Gaza, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“More than 690,000 menstruating women and adolescent girls in Gaza currently have no privacy and limited access to menstrual hygiene supplies,” UNFPA said in a news release. “The lack of water makes keeping clean nearly impossible and raises risks of infection.”
Bakiza Mohamed, 47, says she has no choice but to give her 16-year-old daughter torn pieces of cloth to use in place of proper menstrual hygiene products.
"What else could I do?" Mohamed asked in a video shared by UNFPA. "I am a widow, I have no husband, no son and I have no one. And my daughter's husband was killed. So I ended up tearing pieces of fabric to manage."
UNFPA has distributed 2,000 kits containing menstrual hygiene products in central and southern Gaza, products the organization says are mostly not available to buy in the enclave.
63 people killed and 112 injured in last 24 hours in Gaza, Palestinian Ministry of Health says
At least 63 people have been killed and 112 people were injured in the last 24 hours in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The total death toll in the enclave is now over 31,500, the ministry said.
20 arrested in new wave of raids on West Bank
Israeli forces arrested 20 people from villages and towns across the occupied West Bank, including ex-prisoners previously released by Israeli authorities, the Palestinian Prisoners Club and Prisoners’ Commission said in a statement.
The arrests, in Tulkarm, Hebron, Tubas, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin and Jerusalem, were accompanied by raids including “severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes,” the commission said. It accused Israeli authorities of “harassment” during arrest campaigns and of storming the homes of families of people who had already been detained.
In December, the U.N. warned that Palestinians in Israeli jails were frequently subjected to “beatings and abuse” and that conditions had “deteriorated significantly” since Oct. 7, with many detainees reporting overcrowding and restrictions on food, water and legal aid.
More than 7,600 people have been arrested in the West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, including people who remain currently in detention and people who were later released.
36 people killed in strike on family home in Gaza, Palestinian officials say
JERUSALEM — A least 36 people were killed after an Israeli airstrike was carried out on a house belonging to a family near the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza last night, Palestinian officials said.
In a statement posted to Telegram, the Palestinian Government Media Office accused the Israeli military of bombing a house belonging to the Al-Tabatibi family. It said most of those killed were children, with pregnant women also among the dead.
NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the situation on the ground.
The IDF said in a statement today that its forces continued to operate in central Gaza, including in the area of Nuseirat. It said it had received intelligence "regarding the entrenchment of several Hamas terrorists within a terrorist infrastructure in the area" and that troops directed an aircraft to "strike the terrorists."
It said troops also directed an aircraft to strike a Hamas terrorist operative, together with the commander of a Hamas sniper cell. It was not clear which, if any, of the above strikes were on the home of the Al-Tabatibi family. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for further information.