Live Updates: Palestinian death toll in Israel's war on Gaza reaches 32,490

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

12:14 GMT –– Palestinian death toll in Israel's war on Gaza reaches 32,490

At least 32,490 Palestinians have been killed and 74,889 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement.

There have been 76 Palestinians killed and 102 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry statement added.

11:24 GMT –– Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel in retaliation

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel killing a civilian, after Israel carried out a deadly strike in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israeli rescue teams searching a building that had been hit in the border town of Kiryat Shmona "found a 25 year old who was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing," and pronounced him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

10:40 GMT –– Russia sends over 29 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza

Russia said it sent over 29 tonnes of humanitarian aid for besieged Gaza, where more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 74,000 injured since October 7 last year.

A statement by Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram that a special flight it dispatched earlier in the day has delivered the 20th batch of humanitarian aid to representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the city of El Arish, who will then redirect the aid to Gaza residents.

The ministry said earlier that the humanitarian aid consists of cereals, flour, sugar and other long-term storage products, as well as personal hygiene products, most of which were collected at the initiative of authorities from the Russian Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia.

10:09 GMT –– Poland joins countries condemning Israeli seizure of 800 km² of land in occupied Palestinian territory

Poland joined several countries that condemned the Israeli seizure of 800 km² (1,976 acres) of land in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

Emphasising the move is the largest appropriation of Palestinian land by Israel since the Oslo Accords, the Polish Foreign Ministry said on X: "This runs counter to international law and also to efforts to deescalate the current situation."

The Israeli government reportedly seized 800 km² of land in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank, claiming it as "state land," according to a report on Israel's state television channel KAN.

09:30 GMT –– Israeli army kills three more Palestinians in Jenin

An Israeli army air strike killed three Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, "Three Palestinians were martyred and four others injured in the (Israeli) occupation aggression on Jenin."

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu news agency that an armed Israeli army drone struck the Al Damj neighbourhood of the Jenin refugee camp while Israeli forces, escorted by bulldozers, raided Jenin, and the adjacent towns of Qabatiya and Burqin, and started to destroy the infrastructure there.

08:48 GMT –– Israel unlikely to comply with UN ceasefire call in Gaza: Law expert

Israel is not expected to comply with the UN Security Council's recent call for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to an international law expert.

"Israel has a significant record of non-compliance with international law," Lima Bustami, director of the Law Department at the Geneva-based civil society organisation Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, told Anadolu.

Bustami stressed that Tel Aviv disregards international organisations, including the UN and the UN Security Council.

07:39 GMT –– Intense Israeli bombardment hits southern Gaza, calls for more aid grow

Southern Gaza came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight, despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where famine is looming.

Besieged Gaza is in desperate need of aid and the United States said it would continue air drops, despite pleas from Hamas to stop the practice after the group said 18 people had died trying to reach food packages.

A fireball lit up the night sky in the southern city of Rafah, the last remaining urban centre in Gaza not to have been attacked by Israeli ground forces. About 1.5 million people are crammed in the area, many having fled south towards the border with Egypt.

06:48 GMT –– Hamas-linked group says Israeli strike in south Lebanon killed 7

A Lebanese organisation closely linked to Palestinian resistance group Hamas said that at least seven people were killed in an overnight strike in south Lebanon.

Speaking to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, a Jamaa Islamiya official said "seven rescuers" were killed in a strike on an emergency centre in Habariyeh near the Israeli border.

Jamaa Islamiya's emergency responders said in a statement that "a number" of people had been killed, and called the strike a "heinous crime."

06:07 GMT –– Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza block highway in Tel Aviv

Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza blocked a highway in central Tel Aviv late Tuesday before police forcefully intervened and dispersed them, according to Israeli media.

Dozens of demonstrators and relatives of the hostages blocked the Ayalon Highway near Hashalom Interchange, Haaretz reported.

Police forcefully removed the protesters, who were sitting in the road, and arrested two family members of hostages, it added.

05:28 GMT –– Russia says UN resolution on Gaza binding for all sides

Russia's Foreign Ministry said that UN Security Council Resolution 2728 on Gaza, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid, is binding for all sides, including Israel.

Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution on Gaza because it contained "only a general imperative" to stop the fighting under the strict condition of the release of hostages, the ministry said in a statement.

"The Russian side expects that the binding UN Security Council Resolution 2728 will contribute to de-escalating violence in Gaza, including preventing the Israeli operation in Rafah, freeing hostages, (and) increasing humanitarian assistance to civilians in the sector," it said.

05:10 GMT –– Israel's decision to block UNRWA aid 'unacceptable': Norway

Israel's decision to deny access to food convoys from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to northern Gaza is unacceptable, Norway's Foreign Ministry said.

"Famine is imminent. More life-saving humanitarian assistance is crucial & urgent," the ministry wrote on X, citing Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

Several countries have suspended their funding to UNRWA following Israeli accusations on January that 12 of the agency's thousands of employees took part in the October 7 attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel.

04:37 GMT –– Israel has destroyed Gaza: UN expert

Israel has destroyed Gaza during five months of military offensive, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, told the UN Human Rights Council.

"The harrowing number of deaths, the irreparable harm done to those who survive, the systematic destruction of every aspect necessary t o sustain life in Gaza – from hospitals to schools, from homes to arable land – and the particular harm to hundreds of thousands of children and to pregnant and young mothers," said Albanese.

She said in a report to the council that Israel's actions can only be interpreted as constituting "prima facie evidence of an intention to systematically destroy the Palestinians as a group."

04:15 GMT — Israel kills 12 in Gaza strike; China says UN resolution binding

Israel has targeted a displacement camp in southern Gaza, killing at least 12 Palestinians including children, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

The ministry in a statement reported "12 martyrs including children in an air strike that hit a tent for displaced people" in the coastal al Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis city. As usual the Israeli military said it was looking into it.

Al Mawasi, on the besieged Gaza Mediterranean coast, is now home to thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly six months of Israeli war who shelter in makeshift tents.

03:20 GMT — Biden says Gaza protesters 'have a point' as tensions heighten with Netanyahu

President Joe Biden has said that pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a ceasefire in besieged Gaza "have a point" as tensions between him and hawkish Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu hit a boiling point.

The president was speaking at a healthcare-focused campaign event in North Carolina when he was interrupted by demonstrators who asked "What about the healthcare in Gaza?"

"Hospitals in Gaza are being bombed," one protester yelled. Another accused Biden of being "complicit in genocide" while others shouted now-familiar refrains demanding a cease-fire in the coastal enclave.

02:45 GMT — UN ceasefire resolution 'binding' on Israel

China and Pakistan have emphasised that "UN Security Council resolutions are binding" on Israel — specifically concerning Gaza and rejecting US claims to the contrary.

China "calls on the parties concerned to fulfill their obligations under the UN Charter and to take due action as required by the resolution," a Chinese government official said in response to a question by Anadolu Agency about comments by the US top envoy to the UN who claimed a resolution passed Monday was "non-binding" on parties to the conflict in Gaza, which has been under an onslaught by Israel since October last year.

Pakistan's top diplomat at the UN also doubled down on the need to follow the UN Charter with regard to the Council resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza.

02:19 GMT — Rafah invasion 'must account' for more than 1 million people: Pentagon

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has noted any Israeli invasion into Gaza's southern city of Rafah that does not take into account more than 1 million people would be a "mistake."

"What we continue to reiterate, both publicly and privately, is that any type of operation into Rafah must account for over 1 million people that are sheltered there and take into account innocent civilian lives.

"So, what we've said is going forward with an operation in Rafah would be a mistake if those lives aren't taken into account," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.

For our live updates from Tuesday, March 26, click here.