Israeli attacks kill dozens of Palestinians including 15 people at a sport centre where war-displaced people were sheltering.
Here’s how things stand on Saturday, March 30, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- Dozens of Palestinians were killed in non-stop Israeli attacks across Gaza, including 15 people at a sport centre in Gaza City where hundreds of people displaced by the bombardment were sheltering.
- The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the Israeli military has killed 26 of its staff since the start of the war on Gaza, including 15 team members who were targeted while performing medical duties.
- At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a police station in the Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City, the Gaza government said.
- Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported at least 71 Palestinians were killed and 112 wounded in the last 24 hours. At least 32,623 Palestinians have been killed and 75,092 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
- Qatar has welcomed a new order by the International Court of Justice that calls on Israel to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza, where famine has set in.
Diplomacy and regional tensions
- Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the Israeli military will expand its campaign against Hezbollah. “We will reach wherever the organisation operates, in Beirut, Damascus and in more distant places,” he said, hours after Israel said it killed the deputy head of the group’s rocket and missiles unit in southern Lebanon.
- The United States will send another $2.5bn in weapons to Israel despite increasing pressure from Democratic senators and members of Congress to limit military aid to Israel, The Washington Post newspaper reported.
- The package includes 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, which can inflict damage to people up to 1,000 feet (300 metres) away, and have been “linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza”, the report said.
- Russia and Iran condemned Israel for its deadly air raids on Syria, which killed several Hezbollah members, calling it a breach of the country’s sovereignty.
Violence in occupied West Bank
- In the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy and injured several other young people during another night of bloody military raids.
