US ‘closely watching hostilities’ on Lebanon border

US military officials and their Israeli counterparts have discussed only “broad concepts” about how to limit harm to civilians during a planned operation in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, according to the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A planned visit to Washington by Israeli officials in coming days will help the Americans “to understand their concept” of the military operation and offer “alternative opportunities” to minimize deaths among the more than one million civilians sheltering in Rafah, General Charles Brown told reporters Thursday at a luncheon briefing.

Asked if Israel has briefed US officials on the offensive plan as well as ways to limit civilian fatalities, Gen Brown said “we got a little more detail on some of the broad concepts of humanitarian and moving civilians than we got on the operational piece. I’m anxious to hear both of those and how it all comes together”.

“Additional detail will tell us about the feasibility of the plan,” Gen Brown said. “I think they have listened” to American concerns.

–Bloomberg

The US military said on Thursday that it had destroyed four drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

US Central Command said on the social media site X that the drones “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region”.

The drones were aimed at a coalition vessel and a US warship, Centcom said.

It said they were shot down “in self-defence over the Red Sea”, and there were no injuries or damage reported to the US or coalition ships.

– Reuters

The top US general said on Thursday that Israel had not received every weapon that it has asked for, in part because President Joe Biden’s administration was not willing to provide some of them.

Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel, its long-time ally, and the US has been rushing air defences and munitions to the country since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

But some Democrats and Arab-American groups have criticised the Biden administration’s steadfast support for Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.

“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they’ve not received everything they’ve asked for,” Gen Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at an event hosted by the Defence Writers Group, according to Reuters.

“Some of that is because they’ve asked for stuff that we either don’t have the capacity to provide or not willing to provide, not right now.”

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The Syrian army says an Israeli air strike on Thursday on a suburb of the capital Damascus wounded two civilians and caused damage.

Syrian state media quoted an unidentified military official as saying that the strike hit a residential building, without saying in which suburb the attack occurred.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit the southern suburb of Sayida Zeinab, where Iran-backed fighters have a presence.

It had no word on casualties.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes. Israel often launches strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledges them.

The strikes have increased over the past five months during the war in Gaza and clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanese border.

– AP

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government can no longer fund religious seminaries for ultra-Orthodox men of enlistment age.

In its decision, the court said that funding for religious students between the ages of 18 and 26 will be cut off on April 1.

Under longstanding agreements, Israel has granted ultra-Orthodox men exemptions from military service that is otherwise compulsory for most Jewish men.

The exemptions, along with stipends for the religious students, have generated widespread anger, especially with the country at war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

The ultra-Orthodox say that integrating into the army will threaten their generations-old way of life and that their dedication to upholding the Jewish commandments protects Israel as much as a strong army.

The ruling will affect about a third of the 180,000 yeshiva students who receive subsidies from the government for full-time learning, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The Supreme Court also has ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to present a new proposal to increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment by the end of March.

Mr Netanyahu, whose coalition relies heavily on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties, on Thursday asked the court for a 30-day extension.

Benny Gantz, Mr Netanyahu’s top political rival and a centrist member of the war cabinet, praised the court’s decision, saying it recognised “the need for everyone in our society to take part in the right to serve the country”.

– AP

Jessica Morgan reports from Abu Dhabi:

The UAE and Egypt have dropped more aid to northern Gaza in a joint operation to support Palestinian citizens.

Aircraft dropped 79 tonnes of food and relief over isolated and inaccessible areas in the Gaza Strip.

It brings the total amount of aid provided to 743 tonnes since the operation began in February, Wam reported.

Footage released showed aircraft parachuting aid parcels in northern Gaza to reach those struggling in that part of the enclave.

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Mina Aldroubi reports:Hospitals across Gaza have become battlegrounds and must be protected by the rules of war, an aid official told The National as the enclave’s Al Shifa Hospital remained under Israeli siege.

Last week, the Israeli military began a raid on Al Shifa. Tanks shelled the medical complex, setting fire to buildings, the Gaza media office said.

Homes in the surrounding area were bombed.

The Israeli army said on Thursday that Hamas fighters were firing on troops “from within and outside” the hospital’s emergency ward.

Other hospitals in Gaza, including Al Amal and Nasser, have also been attacked.

“This is deeply troubling,” Jessica Moussan, media adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told The National.

“Hospitals should be safe for people who need medical help, for those who work there and for those sheltering in them.”

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Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister has appealed to Israel “to show humanity” and allow more aid into Gaza amid a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.

Micheal Martin, who is also Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, was speaking in Dublin alongside the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic.

“Fundamentally, it’s about trucks getting in over the borders and the land crossings,” Mr Martin said.

“It is criminal, it is absolutely a scandal that children are malnourished, that half the population are facing famine, and others in terms of insecurity. There is no need for this.”

US President Joe Biden’s administration is holding “conversations” about a peacekeeping force to secure Gaza after the war, Politico reported on Thursday.

Defence Department officials and other US authorities told Politico that there were talks about the Pentagon funding a multinational force or a Palestinian peacekeeping group.

The officials stressed that US troops would not be involved.

The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide warned on Thursday of a rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobic demonstrations.

“In the current context, we continue seeing hateful and inciteful language becoming normalised in the public space, including in demonstrations, by public figures and anonymous citizens alike, in the region and globally,” Alice Wairimu Nderitu said in a statement.

Ms Nderitu called for the Israel-Gaza war to end and “those responsible for hindering humanitarian access and for hate speech, dehumanising and inciteful language” to be held to account.

The UN court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and medical supplies to the Palestinian population in Gaza without delay.

In its legally binding order, the International Court of Justice told Israel to take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.

It also ordered Israel to immediately ensure “that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance.”

“The catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities,” the court said.

France will provide more than €30 million ($32.41 million) to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA this year to support its operations in the devastating war in Gaza, said the French Foreign Ministry.

“We will make our contributions while ensuring that the conditions are met for UNRWA to fulfil its missions in a spirit devoid of incitement to hatred and violence”, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine told journalists.

He did not say when the next payment to the agency would be made.

According to the usual quarterly schedule, the next tranche is due in April.

-Reuters

The Kuwaiti ambassador to Jordan, Hamad Al Marri, handed more than $2 million as a contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the Kuna news agency reported

The UNRWA said on Tuesday it had enough funds to run its operations until the end of May after many donors paused their funding over Israeli accusations that some staff took part in Hamas’ October 7 attack, which started war in Gaza.

The UNRWA provides aid and essential services to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and across the wider region.

Jihan Abdalla reports from Washington:

The White House has said it is of “utmost importance” to restore calm along the Israel-Lebanon frontier after new border crossfire and Israeli strikes killed 16 people in southern Lebanon.

“We’re watching closely the hostilities along that blue line,” the US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

“Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden’s administration and it has to be of the utmost importance, we believe … for both Lebanon and Israel.”

Mr Kirby said that since October 7, the administration of President Joe Biden has been concerned about the Israel-Gaza war expanding into a wider regional conflict.

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza.

Adla Massoud reports from the UN:

Palestine’s UN envoy urged the Security Council to ensure the implementation of the resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire it adopted on Monday.

“The Security Council cannot remain silent in the face of such utter contempt by Israel,” Riyad Mansour said in a letter to the Security Council, seen by The National.

“The council must use all tools available to it and mandated by the Charter of the United Nations to implement its resolutions and maintain international peace and security.

“Israel’s mass atrocities against the Palestinian people, which are impossible to fully catalogue or comprehend, must be stopped.

“There is not a rule or principle of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, that it has not deliberately and repeatedly breached, no indignity it has not inflicted on our people.”

Citing the report by Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Mr Mansour highlighted the extensive and “destructive” nature of Israel’s actions in Gaza, revealing an “intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group”.

“Israel has not only carried on with its bombardment of Gaza, it has deliberately escalated attacks in recent days, sending a blatant message of disrespect to the Security Council and an ominous, punitive message to the Palestinian people and their leadership for daring to appeal to the world for a ceasefire and protection.”

Amr Mostafa reports:

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has approved the formation of a new government headed by Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

The new cabinet will be sworn in on Sunday, the official Wafa news agency reported, amid fears it will fail to root out corruption and provide accountability to the Palestinian people.

In January, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned that the Palestinian Authority “has a responsibility to reform itself, to improve its governance”, after meeting Mr Abbas on a regional tour.

Many observers had been hoping Mr Abbas would bring in new leaders to energise reform efforts, rather than veterans of the Palestinian Authority.

Amid the worst war in Gaza’s history and the worst violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, observers are increasingly looking to the authority to have some role in a post-conflict Gaza.

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Thomas Helm reports:The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to send a high-profile delegation to the US in a dramatic about-turn after he cancelled the trip in an apparent swipe at President Joe Biden.

The delegation’s visit will tackle Washington’s concerns about Israeli plans to launch an offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where about 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge.

There are fears throughout the international community that an Israeli operation in Rafah would have a catastrophic civilian death toll and worsen Gaza’s deepening humanitarian crisis.

Mr Netanyahu is expected to send the Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, both of whom are confidantes of the prime minister, according to Axios.

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Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, called for an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza and said staff, patients and civilians must be protected.

“With only 10 out of 36 hospitals partially functioning, the health system in Gaza is barely surviving,” Dr Tedros said in a post on X.

He said Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a centre run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, ceased functioning on Tuesday after fighting in and around the site.

Two anti-occupation activists were shot in the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning, according to an Israeli human rights organisation.Three Israelis in total were injured in the attack, in which a gunman shot at a bus and cars on a road near Jericho.

Anti-occupation group Looking the Occupation in the Eye wrote on X that the activists were going to “protect Palestinians from settler violence”.

“We strongly oppose any violence against civilians,” the statement added.

“At the same time, the context cannot be ignored. These days, amid the war in Gaza, we’re seeing an increase in the intensity and scope of the oppression of the Palestinians all over the occupied territories.”

The victims are all being treated in hospital. The attacker is thought to still be on the run.