Israel strikes kill five people in Gaza, local medics say

Relatives gather near the bodies of 3 Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Bureij camp, at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir El-Balah, March 17, 2025. (AFP)
Relatives gather near the bodies of 3 Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Bureij camp, at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir El-Balah, March 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel strikes kill five people in Gaza, local medics say

Relatives gather near the bodies of 3 Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Bureij camp.
  • Israeli air strike killed three Palestinian men in Gaza on Monday as they tried to gather firewood
  • Later on Monday, medics said an Israeli air strike killed a father and his son inside a school sheltering displaced families

CAIRO: An Israeli air strike killed three Palestinian men in Gaza on Monday as they tried to gather firewood, medics said, with no sign of progress in renewed talks on sustaining a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In the latest bloodshed to underline the fragility of the Gaza war’s three-stage truce, the three, all from the same family, had left their homes in central Gaza to collect the wood for cooking.
That has become a daily task for many Gazans as Israel has continued to ban fuel, food, and medical goods from entering Gaza for over two weeks, residents said.
The Israeli military said in a statement it struck “terrorists” operating near their forces and attempting to plant a bomb.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah, relatives rushed to pay farewell to the three white-shrouded bodies.
“They were targeted — and when their cousins and others in the area came to rescue them, the drone targeted them with bombs,” said Jabr Abou Hajjeer, the father of one of the victims.
Later on Monday, medics said an Israeli air strike killed a father and his son inside a school sheltering displaced families in Bureij camp, near the site of the earlier strikes, raising the day’s death toll to five.
The Israeli military said the strike hit two people who were attempting to plant a bomb in the ground near where forces operated in Bureij.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Israel’s “violations” could “undermine all efforts for de-escalation.”
He put the number of Palestinians killed since the January ceasefire at 150.
Israel’s military says it has repeatedly thwarted attempts by Palestinians to plant bombs or otherwise threaten their forces.
Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza for 16 days has increased pressure on Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have been made homeless by the war. The suspension, which Israel said was aimed at pressuring Hamas in ceasefire talks, applies to food, medicine, and fuel imports.

Bakeries closed
Several bakeries have recently closed and food prices are rising, while the electricity cut could deprive people of clean water.
Israel wants to extend the first phase of the ceasefire mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.
Israel and Hamas have been holding successive talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said on Monday that while his group was complying with the terms of the truce, Israel “seeks to foil the agreement and impose new conditions.”
On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused Hamas of waging “psychological warfare” on hostage families.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators’ response to a US proposal for the release of 11 out of 59 living hostages still held, and half of the dead captives.
Gaza’s latest war began when Hamas led a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced most of the population and reduced much of the territory to rubble. 


King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president

King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president
Updated 17 March 2025
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King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president

King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president
  • King Abdullah highlighted Italy’s vital role in Gaza’s humanitarian assistance and airlift efforts
  • He warned about escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and violations of holy sites in Jerusalem

LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on Monday to discuss regional developments.

King Abdullah stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and highlighted Italy’s vital role in humanitarian assistance and airlift efforts carried out by Jordan, Petra reported.

He affirmed that Jordan supports the reconstruction of Gaza without the displacement of its residents and warned about the escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and violations of holy sites in Jerusalem.

During the meeting attended by Qais Abu Daieh, the Jordanian ambassador to Rome, and Alaa Batayneh, the director of King Abdullah’s office, Mattarella and the Jordanian monarch reviewed their countries’ friendly relations.


Syrian troops exchange fire with Lebanese army, armed groups in northeast Lebanon

Syrian troops sit atop a military vehicle as they head toward Syrian-Lebanese border following clashes with Lebanese soldiers.
Syrian troops sit atop a military vehicle as they head toward Syrian-Lebanese border following clashes with Lebanese soldiers.
Updated 10 min 40 sec ago
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Syrian troops exchange fire with Lebanese army, armed groups in northeast Lebanon

Syrian troops sit atop a military vehicle as they head toward Syrian-Lebanese border following clashes with Lebanese soldiers.
  • Lebanese source said 3 Syrian soldiers had crossed into Lebanese territory first and were killed by armed members of a tribe in northeastern Lebanon
  • In retaliation for their deaths, Syrian troops shelled Lebanese border towns overnight

BEIRUT: Syrian troops exchanged fire with Lebanese soldiers and armed groups in northeast Lebanon overnight and into Monday in a new round of clashes along the border.
The mountainous frontier has been a flashpoint in the three months since militants toppled Syria’s Bashar Assad, an ally of Tehran and Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and installed their own institutions and army.
Late on Sunday, Syria’s defense ministry accused Hezbollah of crossing into Syrian territory and kidnapping and killing three members of Syria’s new army.
Hezbollah denied any involvement. A Lebanese security source told Reuters the three Syrian soldiers had crossed into Lebanese territory first and were killed by armed members of a tribe in northeastern Lebanon who feared their town was under attack.
In retaliation for their deaths, Syrian troops shelled Lebanese border towns overnight, according to the Syrian defense ministry and the Lebanese army.
A Lebanese child was killed during the clashes while six people were injured, according to a statement by the Lebanese government on Monday. Residents of the town of Al-Qasr, less than one kilometer from the border, told Reuters they fled further inland to escape the bombardment.
The Lebanese government said it had ordered relevant ministers to coordinate stricter controls on the border with Syrian authorities.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he ordered the army to respond to sources of fire from northern and eastern borders with Syria, according to a statement by his office. Aoun said the state would not allow clashes along the border to continue.
Lebanon’s army said in a statement on Monday that it had handed over the bodies of the three killed Syrians to Syrian authorities, and that it had responded to fire from Syrian territory and sent reinforcements to the border area.
Syria’s army sent a convoy of troops and several tanks to the frontier on Monday, according to a Reuters reporter along the border. Syrian troops fired into the air as they moved through towns on the way to the border.
“Large military reinforcements were brought in to reinforce positions along the Syrian-Lebanese border and prevent any breaches in the coming days,” said Maher Ziwani, the head of a Syrian army division deploying to the border. 


UNRWA chief confident he is on ‘right side of history’

UNRWA chief confident he is on ‘right side of history’
Updated 17 March 2025
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UNRWA chief confident he is on ‘right side of history’

UNRWA chief confident he is on ‘right side of history’
  • UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini acknowledges that it has been “stressful” leading the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, but says he is confident he is “on the right side of history“

GENEVA: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini acknowledges that it has been “stressful” leading the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, but says he is confident he is “on the right side of history.”
The 61-year-old head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has, along with his organization, withstood a barrage of criticism and accusations from Israel since Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed.
“Of course it is stressful. No one could really be prepared for something like this,” Lazzarini told AFP in a recent interview.
It has been rough from the start.
The softly-spoken Swiss father of four began his tenure in 2020 under Covid lockdown, as UNRWA was reeling after the United States — traditionally its largest donor — dramatically slashed its contribution during President Donald Trump’s first term.
But that was nothing compared to what was to come.
“October 7 basically ... destroyed the last protection dikes that UNRWA might have had,” he said, lamenting the “arsenal” it unleashed “to try to discredit the agency, attack the agency, get rid of the agency.”
Relations between Israel and UNRWA, which supports nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, have long been strained, but they have fallen off a cliff in the past year and a half.
Israel’s allegation that some UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attack spurred a string of nations early last year to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency.
Lazzarini warned of “the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding.”
Serving as the “backbone” of the aid operation in Gaza, UNRWA should have funding until June, he said.
“I have no visibility” beyond that, added Lazzarini, speaking to AFP on the sidelines of the FIFDH human rights film festival in Geneva where a film about UNRWA was featured.
Funding gaps are not the only problem the agency faces.
Amid accusations that UNRWA was “infested with Hamas terror activity,” Israel in January took the unprecedented step of severing ties with the UN agency and banning it from operating on Israeli soil.
While UNRWA can still operate in Gaza and the West Bank, it has been barred from contact with Israeli officials, making it difficult to coordinate the safe delivery of aid in the Palestinian territories.
No aid is meanwhile going into Gaza, since Israel halted deliveries to the Strip amid a deadlock over a fragile ceasefire.
“This decision threatens the life and survival of civilians in Gaza,” Lazzarini warned.


He also described the situation in the West Bank, where Israel has for weeks been carrying out a major offensive, “deeply, deeply troubling.”
While uncertain how things would evolve, he said the threat of an Israeli annexation of the West Bank was hanging like “a Damocles sword over the head of the Palestinians (and) the international community.”
Israel has said that UNRWA can be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs.
But Lazzarini argued that while other organizations could handle distributing humanitarian aid, they could not replace UNRWA’s delivery of “government-like services” such as education and health care.
Without UNRWA, “we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived from proper education,” he warned.
Education should also be a top priority for Israel, he insisted.
“If you deprive 100,000 girls and boys in Gaza (of an) education, and if they have no future, and if their school is just despair and living in the rubble, I would say we are just sowing the seeds for more extremism.”
Israel has for years accused UNRWA schools teaching anti-Semitism and a hatred of Israel.
Lazzarini decried “an extraordinary war of disinformation” against the agency.
Lazzarini, who himself has been the target of virulent attacks, acknowledged that “certainly I don’t read everything and don’t listen to everything.”
“Otherwise you wouldn’t sleep anymore.”
He added: “If I didn’t feel that I am still on the right side of history, I don’t think I would continue to carry on.”
But, he said, “I have been given a voice, and obviously I need to use this voice.”
“That is the minimum we owe to the Palestinian refugees who are pretty voiceless.”


US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop
Updated 17 March 2025
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US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop
  • US defense secretary’s statement comes a day after America’s air strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Sunday 
  • Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi vows to continue attacks against US ships “if they continue their aggression“

WASHINGTON/ADEN: The United States will keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signaled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.
The airstrikes are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.

A spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said the death toll of the US attacks has risen to 53. Five children and two women were among the victims while the number of injuries rose to 98, Anees Alsbahi, the spokesperson, added on X.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said on Sunday that his militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen. “If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation,” he said in a televised speech.
The Houthi movement’s political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime,” while Moscow urged Washington to cease the strikes.
The Houthis’ military spokesperson on Sunday said, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its warships in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones in response to the US attacks.
A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, dismissed the claims, saying they were not aware of any Houthi attack on the Truman.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures“: “The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting.”
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” he said. “They better back off.”

 

The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
Trump also told Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, to stop supporting the group immediately. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!“

Iran warns US not to escalate
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” he told state media.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities” in Yemen and warned new escalation could “fuel cycles of retaliation that may further destabilize Yemen and the region, and pose grave risks to the already dire humanitarian situation in the country,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program: “There’s no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran: don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an “immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue,” Moscow said.
Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees Al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. More than 100 were injured.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the claims of civilian casualties. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighborhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” said one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia.
In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties were placed in a yard, wrapped in plastic sheets, Reuters footage showed.
Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in the city of Taiz, two witnesses said on Sunday.

Houthis’ Red Sea attacks disrupt global trade route 
Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan, led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.
The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.
The group suspended its campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.
But on March 12, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.


NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’

NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’
Updated 17 March 2025
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NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’

NGOs fear new rules will make helping Palestinians ‘almost impossible’
  • Since the war in Gaza broke out, aid organizations have been contending with a ‘slippery slope’ when it comes to Israeli authorities’ tolerance for their work
  • COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for overseeing Palestinian affairs, presented a plan last month for reorganizing aid distribution

JERUSALEM: Aid workers in the Palestinian territories told AFP they are concerned that rules recently floated by Israel could make already difficult humanitarian work “almost impossible.”
Since the war in Gaza broke out with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, aid organizations have been contending with a “slippery slope” when it comes to Israeli authorities’ tolerance for their work, said one senior NGO staffer.
But after COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for overseeing Palestinian affairs, presented a plan last month for reorganizing aid distribution, that slope has gotten “much steeper,” with some NGOs deeming the proposed changes unacceptable, she added.
COGAT did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The staffer and others interviewed requested anonymity for fear of repercussions for their operations in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, where responding to the acute humanitarian crisis brought on by the war had already been a Herculean undertaking.
“The ability to deliver aid and adhere to humanitarian principles in Gaza, the access restrictions we’re facing in the West Bank... All of these things, when you put them together, you just feel like you’re watching the apocalypse,” she said.
“We basically have a fire extinguisher trying to put out a nuclear bomb.”
According to NGOs, COGAT presented a plan at the end of February that aims to reinforce Israeli oversight of aid by establishing logistics centers linked to the army and by enforcing tighter control over the entire humanitarian supply chain.
“Logistically, it will be almost impossible,” said one member of a medical NGO, wondering whether such organizations would be forced to declare individual recipients of various medications.
COGAT’s stated objective, according to the NGOs, is to combat looting and the misappropriation of aid by militants.
But the NGOs say they believe looting is currently marginal, and that the best way of avoiding it is to step up deliveries.
Israel, meanwhile, cut off aid deliveries to Gaza entirely early this month over an impasse with Hamas on how to proceed with a fragile ceasefire.
“The thinking (of COGAT) was that Hamas would rebuild itself thanks to humanitarian aid,” said a representative of a European NGO, “but that’s false, and humanitarian aid won’t bring them rockets or missiles.”
Israel “just wants more control over this territory,” he added.
The NGOs said COGAT did not specify when the new rules would take effect.
A separate government directive that came into force in March established a new, stricter framework for registering NGOs working with Palestinians.
It requires organizations to share extensive information on their staff, and gives the government the right to reject employees it deems to be linked to the “delegitimization” of Israel.
NGOs operating in the Palestinian territories already face numerous difficulties, and even outright danger, particularly in Gaza.
At least 387 employees have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to a recent UN estimate.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which was recently banned from operating in Israel, said the humanitarian community is wondering “how far can we go while remaining principled,” and at what point that would no longer be the case under the new rules.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO network PNGO, said organizations “need to all work against” the new restrictions, adding that he believed the rules’ actual goal was to “prevent accountability and any kind of criticism on Israel toward what they committed” in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Lives are at stake,” he added.
The head of an international NGO agreed that a “red line has been crossed and I think we should oppose it.”
But one humanitarian in the medical sector said a principled stand would only draw flak from the Israelis, and “given the needs (of the Palestinians), principled positions don’t hold water.”