Israel at War: What you need to know – day 165

Haaretz, March 19, 2024

U.S. President Biden said he told PM Netanyahu to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground offensive in Rafah. Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers “We all need to stand united against the United States’ position that we shouldn’t go into Rafah.” Oxfam, Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. to suspend arms transfers to Israel over alleged war crimes. The White House said it was “deeply concerned” by a recent report citing an imminent famine in Gaza.

Here’s what you need to know 165 days into the war:

What happened today

Supporters, friends and family members gather to call for the release of Gali and Ziv Berman, twin brothers who were taken hostage, on Monday.

GAZA: The IDF said that its forces are still operating in Al-Shifa Hospital, and that troops are continuously finding weapons on hospital grounds. Gaza City residents still staying in their homes near the hospital said that the IDF is calling for them to evacuate southward, to the Dir al-Balah area in central Gaza.

• U.S. President Joe Biden said he told PM Netanyahu “to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her country opposes an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
• U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the looming famine in Gaza “a dire crisis,” adding that “now is the time to eliminate all barriers to the full and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.” USAID administrator Samantha Power called the situation a “horrific milestone,”and implored Israel “to take immediate action to put an end to this mass – and preventable – suffering.” The White House said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about a UN-backed report indicating imminent famine in Gaza.
• Oxfam and Human Rights Watch sent a joint memorandum to the Biden administration detailing Israel’s alleged violations of humanitarian law – including with U.S. weapons and blocking U.S. funded humanitarian aid – which they say necessitates the immediate suspension of U.S. arms transfers to Israel.
• Hamas deputy political bureau chief Musa Abu Marzouk met with the UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland on Tuesday, a Hamas source said.
• Israel assassinated a top Hamas Interior Ministry official in charge of securing the humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza, according to local reports in Gaza.
• The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed and 73,934 have been wounded since the start of the war.

HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: Mossad Chief David Barnea returned to Israel from Qatar, where an Israeli delegation remains to continue negotiations for a hostage release/cease-fire deal.

• Qatar’s foreign ministry said that the sides are not close to a cease-fire deal, but that Doha remains hopeful, and also warned that an Israeli operation in Rafah will set back negotiations and result in major destruction and “atrocities” that have not been seen in the conflict before.
• A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations said that Israel has not yet delivered its answer to Hamas’ latest offer.

“The only realistic way to get rid of Netanyahu is by dissolving the Knesset and holding early elections, and the Biden administration has no influence over the internal parliamentary machinations that can make that happen” – Anshel Pfeffer

– UNITED STATES: Senator Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee focused on the Middle East, called on Israel to immediately pause military operations amid looming famine in Gaza.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to “discuss the right architecture for lasting regional peace.”

– ISRAEL: PM Netanyahu said during a parliamentary committee session that “We all need to stand united against the United States’ position that we shouldn’t go into Rafah.” Earlier, he said that he made it clear to Biden that Israel is determined to operate in Rafah to “complete the destruction of Hamas.” His office also claimed that out of respect for Biden, Israel would allow the White House to “share their ideas, particularly in regards to the humanitarian aspect, and enabling a planned population withdrawal and assistance to civilians.”

• The IDF said that Reservist Warrant Officer Sebastian Haion, 51, was killed in combat near the Al-Shifa Hospital on Tuesday.
• Israel has filed a request to the International Court of Justice at The Hague not to issue emergency orders for it to step up humanitarian aid to Gaza to address a looming famine, dismissing South Africa’s request to do so as “morally repugnant,” in view of the “actions it has and is taking” to protect innocent lives in Gaza.

– WEST BANK: Two Shin Bet officers were wounded in a shooting attack at the Gush Etzion Junction. The assailant was shot and killed.

– LEBANON: The IDF said that about 15 rockets and mortar shells were launched at north Israel from southern Lebanon.

– SYRIA: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot in the Damascus area overnight into Tuesday.

Members of a Gazan family break their fast during tRamadan outside their destroyed home in Rafah, Gaza on Monday.

Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelis and wounded more than 3,300 in a merciless assault. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 129 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to the Netanyahu-led government’s judicial coup – legislation aimed at dramatically weakening Israel’s judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel’s most right-wing government ever.