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Smoke rising after an explosion in Gaza – March 13, 2024
March 13, 2024
Last updated 25 minutes ago
The Hamas movement announced through its official Telegram account that the head of the Rafah Emergency Committee, Nidal Sheikh Eid, and the deputy head of police operations, Mahmoud Abu Hasna, were killed in Israeli raids at dawn on Thursday.
Hamas’ announcement comes after the Israeli army announced the killing of Hamas leader Hadi Ali Mustafa in a bombing that targeted a car carrying him in Lebanon on Wednesday, whose death was also confirmed by Hamas.
The movement said in its statement: “The cowardly assassination carried out by the Zionist occupation army of the head of the Emergency Committee in Rafah, the martyr Nidal Sheikh Eid, and the deputy head of police operations, the martyr Mahmoud Abu Hasna, is a criminal act, through which the Nazi enemy aims to confuse the internal front and create a situation.” From chaos, and preventing any attempt to provide relief to our displaced people.”
Abu Hasna was killed as a result of an air strike carried out by the Israeli army on Rafah, hours after UNRWA announced that an Israeli bombing had hit its food distribution centre.
Abu Hasna’s name was included in a list of four names that the movement’s Ministry of Health confirmed were killed as a result of the strike on the UNRWA warehouse.
UNRWA said in a statement, “At least one UNRWA employee was killed and 22 others were injured when Israeli forces bombed a food distribution center in the eastern part of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.”
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The Ministry of Health in Gaza also confirmed the killing of three others, including an UNRWA employee named Hosni Yousef Musa Abu Jazar, in addition to Abu Hasna, whom it identified as the center’s police director.
The Israeli army stated that it killed Abu Hasna in a “precise liquidation operation” that targeted him in the city of Rafah.
Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee said on his account on the
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“Hadi Mustafa is a central element in the Hamas movement in Lebanon.”
Image source: EPA
The Israeli army announced that a raid carried out by an Israeli army plane on the Lebanese Tire region “eliminated a prominent member of Hamas involved in directing sabotage cells and field activities to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in various countries around the world.”
The Israeli army described Hadi Mustafa as a “central element” in the Hamas movement in Lebanon, and that he was “promoting terrorist activities against Israeli targets around the world.”
The Israeli army published a video clip attributed to the operation targeting the leader Mustafa, on Wednesday morning.
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The Israeli army publishes a video targeting Hamas leader Hadi Mustafa
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said that the escalation in areas far from the southern border “reflects Israel’s desire to expand the conflict and drag the region into war.”
In a statement, the ministry called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop its “continuing attacks at an escalating pace.”
The Hamas movement mourned Hadi Ali Mustafa, saying that he was killed “in the Israeli raid that targeted a car in the city of Tyre,” and confirmed that he was “from the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement in Lebanon.”
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A photo published by Hamas of Hadi Mustafa
UNRWA protests and demands an independent investigation into the attacks on shelter and aid distribution centres
In its response to the Israeli bombing that targeted a center affiliated with it, the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) denounced the bombing, which it stated had led to “the killing of at least one UNRWA employee,” and that the targeted center “was being used for food and life-saving supplies.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement published on the agency’s website: “Today’s attack on one of the few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes at a time when food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread, and in some areas, the situation is turning into famine”.
He added, “Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities throughout the Gaza Strip with the parties to the conflict. The Israeli army has received the coordinates, including what happened in this facility yesterday.”
The agency says it has recorded “an unprecedented number of violations against its staff and facilities, greater than any other conflict worldwide.”
According to agency figures, at least 165 UNRWA workers were killed, including those “killed while performing their work duties,” and more than 400 displaced persons were killed in shelters flying the United Nations flag, which is considered a violation of international law.
“The United Nations, its staff, buildings and assets must be protected at all times. Since the beginning of this war, attacks on UN facilities, convoys and staff have become commonplace in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law. I again call for an independent investigation into these violations and the need for accountability,” Lazzarini says.
A new road to deliver aid to northern Gaza
Image source: IDF
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The UN said the convoy was able to use an Israeli military road running along the Gaza border fence to reach the north
The United Nations announced that a new land route has been used to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks.
The Israeli army said that six trucks belonging to the World Food Program crossed through a gate in the Gaza border fence (Crossing 96).
The army added that the delivery, which took place on Tuesday evening, was “part of an experiment to prevent Hamas from seizing aid,” stressing that the results of the experiment would be presented to “political parties.”
The United Nations indicated that the World Food Program convoy was able to use an Israeli military road extending along the Gaza border fence to reach the north and deliver enough food for about 25,000 people.
This comes amid global pressure on Israel to allow more access to the Palestinian territories for aid amid a looming famine as it continues its war on Hamas.
A boat carrying 200 tons of food aid for distribution by a charity also sailed from Cyprus on Tuesday, opening a new sea corridor to the Palestinian territories, and is expected to arrive near Gaza on Thursday.
The French news agency reported that a second ship loaded with humanitarian aid allocated to Gaza is in the port of Larnaca, waiting to sail after unloading the first batch in the Palestinian Strip, according to what Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Koumpos said on Wednesday.
“In the current situation, we are working through an NGO, and we are already following up with a commercial ship with a larger capacity” that could leave Cyprus “after unloading the first cargo if there are no problems,” Kombos told reporters in Nicosia.
Combos added that the ship, owned by a state he did not identify, “has been anchored in Larnaca since Saturday,” noting that “the ship and the cargo are being inspected” by the authorities, without specifying the amount of aid it carries.
Combos pointed out that one of the concerns is ensuring the smooth conduct of aid distribution operations on the ground and “managing the crowds” waiting and needing food in the besieged Strip, which has been subjected to Israeli bombing since the outbreak of the current war on October 7th.
He added: “We want people to know that we will conduct regular deliveries to Gazans.”
The United Nations says that at least 576,000 people in Gaza are one step away from famine.
The Israeli Cabinet approves a revised budget to “finance the war”
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday approved the revised state budget for 2024, adding tens of billions of dollars to fund the military operation against Hamas.
Knesset members voted 63 to 55 on the budget in favor of a spending package of NIS 584 billion ($160 billion), or 724 billion including the cost of debt repayment.
News agencies reported that the amended budget stipulates “increasing defense spending and compensating families and companies affected by the war.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said after the vote: “The revised war budget has clear goals, which are to win the war, support the reserve forces, strengthen the Homeland Front, and continue developing the Israeli economy.”
The budget deficit is expected to reach 6.6 percent of GDP in 2024, compared to the pre-war level of 2.25 percent.
The plan also includes increasing allocations for health, education, police, and social care.
A stabbing attack south of Jerusalem leaves two Israelis wounded
Image source: EPA
The Israeli police announced that two Israelis were injured in a stabbing attack carried out at a military checkpoint, located south of Jerusalem.
The Israeli army explained that those injured in the operation were a female military police soldier and a security guard.
Israeli media said that the perpetrator was 15 years old. He arrived at the tunnel checkpoint while riding an electric bicycle, before getting off and carrying out the operation, and that he was “neutralized” after he was shot.
While Israeli Army Radio announced that the perpetrator of the stabbing attack was “the Palestinian boy Muhammad Murad Abu Hamed, a resident of the village of Al-Khader.”
Hamas announced its “blessing” of the stabbing attack south of Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.
The movement called on the Palestinians of the West Bank to “go to Al-Aqsa Mosque,” in order to break what the movement described as “the shackles of the Israeli occupation and confront its efforts.”
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2024-03-14 03:40:07
